Solar Flare
by Bluefire95
Summary: This story is set ten years after Breaking Dawn. When Edward said that the Volturi would try to pick the rebeling vampires off sperately, he was not completely wrong, and now Bella and Edward discover just how evil the Volturi can be.
1. Happy is an Understatement

Bella

Happy is an Understatement 

Just like his face, his beautiful face, nothing could compare to the happiness I had felt over the last 10 years. It didn't seem fair that so many people suffer, and I live an existence of pure bliss.

"What are you thinking about, love?" whispered Edward as we lay relaxing in the light pooling in from our garden.

"Oh just how happy I am… hmm" I sighed and rolled over in his arms. "We should probably go to see Nessie; it's almost 7:00…"

"I don't think she'll miss us quite so much at the moment my dear."

I felt him become like a statue next to me, and knew how he felt. After 10 years, Nessie had lost the "just family" feelings towards Jacob, my best friend, and the change just didn't sit well with her parents, even though they knew Nessie and Jake were perfect for each other in every way.

"I guess we'll just have to suck it up. She is plenty old enough now, and Jake _has_ waited 10 years for her" I reasoned.

"Well technically she is _not _old enough, seeing as she is only ten years old."

"Well if you want to look at it that way, aren't you just a _bit_ too old for me?" I whispered back.

"Ah, that again. As usual, you bring up a valid point. And yes, you are right, we should probably get going," though as he said it, he pulled his love closer to his iron chest.

"Maybe just a little longer…" I snuggled closer to him, hugging myself to him with all my strength.

After a while, we got up, and ran back to the house, racing, and I just about beat him that time. I knew he was faster though. I thought maybe he was being sweet and slowing down. It just slightly made me mad.

"Why do you do that?" I said as I jumped into the yard.

"Do what my Bella?" He said innocently.

"Slow down on purpose! You have been doing that for years!" I exclaimed.

"That's nonsense. I run as fast as I can when we race and you _still_ almost beat me. You really are quite fast you know, but as usual, you don't see yourself very clearly."

"Sure, sure." I said sarcastically just as Nessie burst outside.

"Momma! Dad!" She shouted as she ran towards us. Every time I saw her, I still just couldn't believe that she was my daughter. She was so beautiful. She grew from being the most darling and precious little girl, to the most gorgeous woman on the face of the planet. She had my old eyes of course, curly locks of red-brown hair to her waist, pale milky skin, and long elegant limbs. The only bad thing she inherited really was my clumsiness. Sort of. She still was more graceful than any human alive, but she still wasn't as smooth as the rest of us. Emmett joked all the time that only I could be clumsy enough to pass on my "klutziness" to a half-vampire. I really hoped Nessie didn't mind that much.

"Hello beautiful." Edward grinned at her when she stopped in front of us. He looked happy enough, but whatever Nessie was thinking was making him uneasy. I could see that.

"I have a question. Um, well, Jake asked me to go on a trip with him to South America. Just us. I thought we could go see Zafrina and her sisters? He said we would stay for three weeks, and I just wanted to run it by you." She said this quickly. I could feel the nervousness radiating off her, and I could also hear Jake's heart pumping quickly. He was no doubt watching from the windows.

"I don't have a problem with it. Bella?" He said this as though he were hoping _I_ had a problem with it. I opened up my shield to let him hear my thoughts.

_Edward, come on, she will be fine. You know that Jake would rather eat everyone on the planet than let a hair on her head get hurt. And we knew this would happen sometime. We should just relax. You already see Jake as a son anyway, and so do I. _

Edward looked at me for a moment, wonder in his eyes. I really don't know why after ten years he still hadn't gotten used to reading my mind. He looked then at Renesmee, and then at Jake, who quickly ducked behind the curtains.

"I say yes and thank you for asking hun, that was sweet." I said, clearing my throat at Edward.

"Alright then, that's settled. When will you be leaving?" He asked this for my benefit of course, he already knew the answer.

"In two days." Nessie said excitedly. The nervousness was now replaced with eagerness. She was almost bouncing.

_She must get that from Alice._ I mused. Then, as if called, Alice sprang out of the house and danced over to where we were standing, followed by the whole household.

"Oh Nessie! I am SO excited! Can I please pack your clothes? I have a dozen things already that you NEED to wear! Oh I love South America!" I could literally see the wheels in Alice's head turning. I felt bad for my daughter. If I know Alice, and I do, she will pack silk cock-tail dresses to wear as pajamas.

"Sure! But um, I get to veto." Nessie said happily. Even though Nessie liked to dress up and go shopping, which confused me, I was happy that Nessie had replaced me as Alice's Barbie doll.

"Hey Jake, you hungry?" I asked as we walked back to the house.

"Am I ever? Oh and thanks for the backup on the vacation thing. I know Edward probably didn't like that very much. He glanced back at Edward who was smirking at us.

"No problem Jake, but if you break her heart, I will break your neck, over and over and over." I said jokingly. Edward grunted in approval.

"Mom." Nessie groaned from inside. I laughed and went in to make pancakes.

After a while, I actually started to like cars. Fast ones. I could now finally understand why Edward had so loathed my driving. I just hated having to go so slowly everywhere I went. Now fast cars had become my friends. I have to admit I still didn't really care what they looked like though. I had just received yet another car from Edward, for our 10th anniversary. It was a shiny blue Camaro, and it was _really _fast.

"Earth to Bella." Joked Jacob as we were sitting in the living room.

"Sorry, just thinking about my car."

"Who are you and what have you done with Bella?" murmured Rosalie.

"What, is it really that hard to believe? I mean, after all, I Bella, the girl who couldn't walk straight, can now do this." Bella said, twisting and twirling around the room to Edward's piano music.

"It really is a miracle; Jesus walking on water has nothing on _that,_" Smirked Emmet.

"Oh, right Emmett, I was planning on asking you. Do you by any chance want to…..um… arm wrestle?" Bella retorted.

"Outside. Now. This will be fun." Emmett said confidently, jumping up and striding out the door.

"Sorry Esme, but I must see this." Edward said, grinning as he stood up from the piano.

After everyone was outside and we had found a good rock, I said,

"Don't go easy on me Emmett; I want to see what I can still do. It _has_ been a while since my renovation."

"Don't worry little sis. No chance of that happening _again_."

"Are you implying that our previous matches have been tempered with?"

"That's _exactly_ what I am implying," Growled Emmett.

"Oh right, and your straining muscles were just fake, right?"

"I can be a good actor."

"Edward can easily tell if you are lying you know."

"Yeah that's why------- AHHHHHHHH," Screamed Emmett, jumping out at me, trying to pin me.

I was too quick for him. I slid out from where he was going to land, did a quick twist, secured his arms behind his neck, pushed his head into the mud beneath us, and sat on him.

"MEEME AAAP!" shouted Emmett's muffled voice. I let him up and jumped out of the way. Mud covered every inch of his front, and was even in his mouth.

"Why you little---"he growled, and made a move to charge again.

Once again, I was too fast. This time he was prepared for my jumping out of the way, and made to turn and grab me. I instead ducked down and grabbed his foot, which threw him off balance. I then pulled very sharply on his foot, and flipped him over onto his stomach. Then, after securing his arms, I placed one foot on his back and let out a feral snarl that shocked even me.

When I finally let Emmett up, seething, spitting mud out of his mouth, I glanced back at my family, who stood trying not to break into hysterical laughter. All but Jake of course. He just let it all out.

"Jeeze Bella, where did you learn _that?_ I didn't teach you _that_," Choked Jasper, trying not to laugh. Jasper had been teaching me to fight for about five years now.

"I just went by instinct." I said, shrugging.

"You're lucky _I'm _not going by instinct right now Bella, because right now my instincts are telling me to strangle you."

"It looks like your instincts are a _bit_ slow today anyway Emmet," Laughed Jacob, finally able to speak.

"Don't tempt me _dog._" Emmett snapped, storming off into the house, Esme trailing after to clean up his trail.

"Ha, I almost feel bad." I said, my eyes following Emmet's back into the house.

"Don't," said Edward, coming up behind me and putting his arms around me.

"Yeah, Bella. That was the coolest thing you have ever done," said Jacob, smiling.

"Well thanks Jake, _that's_ nice to know."

"So you were thinking about your car, were you?" Edward Interrupted.

"Oh yeah, I was. I really do love it Edward. I was thinking that I know now why you couldn't stand my driving." I said smiling.

"Oh it wasn't just him." Jake said.

"Whatever Jake, you're just jealous of my Camaro."

"Am not."

"Don't worry, he is." Edward whispered in my ear.

"No fair mind reading." Jake complained, but then he shrugged and led Nessie back inside by the hand. Everyone else followed.

Emmett missed no chance over the next week to insult me in every way imaginable. Rather than being upset, I was amused. He also tried repeatedly to beat me in mock fights, but to no avail. He eventually stopped though, to my dismay. I was using the fights as an excuse to get out of Alice's vacation planning storm. I wasn't really too concerned about the whole thing, but with Alice, you never knew. Edward told me one night that he had caught her thinking about planning a trip for us too. Ever since my Honeymoon, I had vowed never to let Alice pack my clothes again.

On the night of Jacob and Renesmee's departure, the whole family got together to say goodbye. I had to say, it was pretty hard watching Nessie go. She had never been away from me for that long before. I could tell Edward was uneasy too. Nessie came up and put her hand to my cheek. She showed me her looking happy with Jake, and then me looking happy with Edward. She was trying to communicate that she wanted me to relax, and that there was nothing to worry about. I knew she was right.

"I love you Nessie. Have a great time. Say hello to the Amazons for me please." I said, giving her a big hug. I didn't know why, but I still felt incredibly uneasy, so I turned to Jake, giving him a hug too. "I love you Jake, take care of me baby."

"Bye sweetheart. Love you. Bye Jake." Edward said, giving Nessie a kiss and Jake a pat on the back. After everyone had said their goodbyes, I watched as they got in my Ferrari, and drove out of sight, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach the whole time.


	2. I Should Have Gone on Vacation

2.) I Should Have Gone on Vacation

"You need to get your mind off of Nessie, Bella." Jasper said as we were sitting in the living room, watching a Mariners game.

"Bella, love, please relax, she will be perfectly fine." Edward soothed, touching the indent between my eyebrows that I got when I was worried.

"I know, I know." I sighed. But I really didn't know. I just had a bad feeling about the whole thing, and I couldn't understand why. I felt a wave of serenity wash over me, and looked at Jasper.

"I'm fine, really. But thank you."

"Ok, but can you tell Alice to stop kicking my shin?"

I looked at Alice, who proceeded to whistle innocently, flipping through the channels without looking at them.

"I have an idea." Rosalie said from the garage. "Why don't we race the cars? The Ferrari is gone of course, but we still have the Camaro, the Porsche, and the Aston Martin.

"I'm in." Edward said instantly, followed by Emmett and Jasper's consent.

"Ok. That sounds like fun." I said tentatively, standing up.

We all walked outside to where Rosalie had gotten the cars out. Because of our not aging, we had decided to move farther away from Forks into a country house that was a bit bigger than the one we had before. It was a cream colored panel on the outside, with white trim and brick accents, and on the inside, Esme had used the normal décor. All white furniture and walls. We had all gotten new rooms of course. Edward and I had our own room, as did the other couples. Nessie got her own room, and Jake got one too. Esme had even been sweet enough to recreate our first cottage. The difference was that this one was a bit bigger, and had a tiny bit smaller closet.

I was to race second, against Emmett. He insisted. First was Edward and Jasper. Edward was in his Aston Martin, and Jasper in Alice's Porsche. Rosalie stood facing the two cars and held up two flags.

"Drivers start your engines." She said loudly.

The engines purred to life, and Edward revved his engine.

"On your mark," Rosalie started. "Get set………… GO!!"

The wheels of the cars spun immediately, leaving plumes of dirt behind. I ran to the finish line as they sped away, and made it to the finish line ten miles away in less than ten seconds. I turned around to watch the cars coming, and didn't see them.

_Hmm. I must be faster than I thought. Either that or the cars are slower than I thought. I wonder----_

I gasped out loud as a hand clamped over my mouth.

"Quiet if you know what is good for you." An unfamiliar deep voice said, and started dragging me away.

I tried to struggle free from this stranger's grasp, but whoever it was, they were extremely strong. I knew if I could just delay this for a few minutes, Edward and Jasper would be here to help; but it appeared that the stranger knew that too, and was pulling me away more quickly. I tried to shout for help, but just as I tried, the man picked me up in his arms, and ran.

This man was very fast too. Not as fast as Edward, I told myself. Edward _would_ catch up. I even tried everything Jasper had ever taught me about escaping once you were held, but nothing was working against this iron grip. I felt for a moment as if I was human again, with no strength. I had started to dry heave, and was scared for the first time in ten years.

The man only ran for a few minutes, but it felt like forever. When I saw where we were and what was there, I struggled like I had never struggled in my existence. I tried to kick my feet and move my arms and scream at the same time, but in one hand he had all of my limbs, and he had wrapped his arm around my head and shut my mouth with his hand.

In front of us was a small air plane. I knew when it left the ground; Edward would not be able to stop this.

Once the man had stopped all of my futile efforts to escape, he jumped into the open door of the plane, and then shut it. Immediately I felt the engine roar to life, and the plane began to gain speed. As it was lifting off the ground, I heard an even louder roar.

"BELLA!" screamed my love and my reason for existence.

**Throughout the whole plane ride, my captor never let me go. I looked up to see his face after a while, and saw that he was a newborn. At least that explained his super strength. He also never released his hold on my mouth. That made it pretty clear that my opinions were neither wanted nor cared about. I realized that Alice would have seen my kidnapping as it was happening, and that she probably started running to me immediately, (followed by the whole family) already knowing it would be too late. I also realized that when Edward reached the finish line and saw that I was missing, he would probably have scanned the thoughts of his family members, and then he would have heard Alice. That all probably took place in less than five minutes, but then again, the kidnapping had taken less than five minutes, and we had had a head start. **

**I began dry heaving again about a half an hour into my little trip. And I didn't stop again until the plane started to descend. **

"**It's about damn time! You didn't tell me she would be so damned loud Felix!" the new born shouted. **

**Felix. I looked up at the pilot for the second time, and realized he was wearing a deep gray cloak. **

_**Oh no. Oh no. Not them. Why does it always have to be them? What do they even want with me? Oh God! If they have me, they can attack home! Oh no, Edward. Edward. Edward. Edward. Oh no. Now I know why I felt so horrible when Nessie left. At least she is out of this whole mess, but what if I never see Nessie again? What if I never see Edward? **_

"Shit! I told you not to use my name!" Felix hissed back at the newborn. He then glanced back at me and saw the horror in my eyes.

"Yeah, it's nice to see you too babe. I hope you enjoyed the flight?" He sneered sarcastically.

I struggled to speak so I could tell him that I loathed him, but the newborn foresaw that and squeezed my mouth even harder. It really hurt.

Felix landed the plane on top of the big turret, came around to the door of the plane, and opened it.

"Ladies first."

"Shut up _Felix._" The newborn retorted.

"Watch it Newbie. I have some influence around here. Don't mess with me."

The newborn remained silent as we walked down a set of stairs and arrived in the lobby. I noticed vaguely that Gianna had been replaced by some other pretty human. I knew where we were going when Felix led the way through the doors, and we arrived in the turret room. I heard them before I saw them.

"Ah Felix and Tom, you have returned!" Aro said happily. I could hear him glide towards us. "And you have brought Bella too! How endearing!"

"Yes master. I know that's what you wanted, even if you couldn't know it." Felix said, winking. I realized that he meant that Aro was purposely making no decisions so that Alice would not know. He instead managed to make someone else decide, who was not as important, to do it.

"Yes, yes. Why don't you put our guest down now Tom? We don't want her feeling out of place, do we?" Aro said lightly.

Tom the newborn reluctantly set me on my feet. My mouth was the last thing he uncovered.

"Master, are you sure you want to hear what she has to say? She is very loud." Tom asked unsurely.

"Yes, do it now." Aro commanded.

I tried to pry his hand off my face, but he cruelly pressed harder than ever, and then let me go.

"You----!" I was going to say something very rude to Tom, but I instead looked at Aro, and my anger boiled over.

"What do you _want _ from me?! What have I done _now_ to get this cruel and evil punishment?! Oh, that's right! Here you punish without cause, you don't care about others because you are completely heartless, and----!"

Tom had clapped his hand over my mouth again.

"Now, now dear Bella, calm yourself." Aro said soothingly. "Let her go now Tom."

His gentle tone only angered me more.

"I said WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME?!" I screamed at him, leaning over into a crouch.

Immediately Felix and Tom stepped forward and took my arms.

"Dear Bella, we just wanted to ask of you your services."

"_What_ services?"

"We want you to join us Bella. We have realized that you have an extraordinary gift that should be shared with the world. You will be happy here. If you would like, I could get your whole family to come here too. Just say the word. You will be happy here." Aro said this slowly, precisely.

I had to pause a moment, shock filling me.

"You would _dare_ ask that of me? You tried to _KILL_ _MY_ _DAUGHTER_ Aro! How could you even _possibly_ think that I would even _remotely_ wish to be _acquainted_ with you? And what do you mean you _could_ bring my family here? _NEVER_ touch them!" I snarled this very quickly, stamping my foot on the marble floor, putting a satisfying whole in it.

"Be at peace Bella. I realize that we have had our differences in the past, but we should put that behind us, and focus on the present."

"NO! YOU TRIED TO KILL MY FAMILY!"

The whole room had been looking at me with disdain, but now out of the corners of my eyes, I could see they were all looking at me now with hate.

"Brother, she is obviously going to hold a grudge." Caius sneered.

I looked at him directly for the first time. He is the monster that killed Irina. Then I found Jane and Alec with my eyes too. I looked around at the monsters that had caused me so much grief a decade ago, the monsters that gave my daughter so many nightmares. The monsters that would never cease torturing my family for the rest of our existence. When I looked at them, I broke.

I jerked free from the two men restraining me, with a strength I didn't know I still had. I reached for the closest vampire, Tom, and ripped his head off with my teeth. I then reached for Felix, who tried to grab me, but I tackled him and ripped off his head too. Already there were dozens of vampires surrounding me, but I lunged for the throat nearest to my right, and managed to rip its head off too. I ripped off three more heads before they ripped off my arms. The pain was nothing compared to the uncontrollable rage I felt towards everyone in that room. I wished I was stronger, faster, and bigger. I wanted to murder every monster in that room, and then do it again. I hated them.

They dragged me to a cell with concrete walls, and threw me in. They also threw my arms in. I saw them place a guard on the inside of the cell, and then I heard a guard standing outside.

_Only two. _I thought to myself. _I could easily take them. _

I struggled to get up, but the guard came over quickly, and pushed me down.

"Don't you even think about it." He sneered, and he kicked me in the head.

I snarled a fierce snarl, but he only laughed, and walked back over to the door.

I then crawled over to where my arms lay, and let them repair themselves. After that was done, I crawled over to the corner of the room, far away from the guard, and curled up in a ball.

That was how I stayed.


	3. So This Is Hell

Edward

3.) So this is Hell

"Edward stop! You have to stop! She's gone, and there is nothing you can do about it right now!" Alice screamed as Emmett, Jasper, and Carlisle held me down, trying to restrain me. I refused to acknowledge the sense in what she said.

"NOOOOOOO!" I roared, and I barely noticed the gasps that came from behind me as I tore myself away from my brothers and father and ran in the direction the plane went.

_No, no, no, no, no. Not Bella, not my Bella. That plane has got to land _sometime_, and when it does, that monster who took my Bella will wish for death. _

"And I will grant that wish with pleasure." I murmured to myself as I flew through the trees. I ran faster than I ever had before. I was sure that if Bella had been racing me, I would have beaten even her by a long shot.

I stopped in Virginia some hours later. I looked out at the Atlantic Ocean, and hated the water that stopped me. I quickly scanned the thoughts of the people around me, looking for anyone who had seen the plane.

"_I really need to get swimming lessons. This is pathetic," __Thought_ a man of about 20.

"_I will only eat half of this. I won't eat the whole thing." _A very large woman thought while getting ice cream.

Then I listened to the mind of the ice cream vendor.

"_That plane was flying pretty far away from where airport planes fly… Sure hope it wasn't a terrorist… But at least it was flying away from us, if it was… that's pretty odd." _The old man was nervous enough, and he briefly thought of what the plane had looked like.

It matched the size of the one's tracks I saw on the ground. According to the man's thoughts, the plane had passed about ten minutes ago, and was flying very fast.

_I _just_ missed it! Bella, please be okay. _I silently cursed myself for not being faster, and for my family for holding me back when it could have meant me getting to Bella.

I sat on the docks debating with myself on what to do next.

_I don't even know who has her. I don't know where they are going. So if I get on a plane and fly to England, I wouldn't even know if I was on the right continent. _I sighed and got out my cell phone. I had to call Alice. She picked up on the first ring.

"Edward, oh Edward, I am so sorry. I couldn't get to her fast enough when it happened. It's my fault. But please come home. We need to talk about this. We need to get a plan together to get her back---''

"Wait, do you mean that you know who has her?"

"I----- Edward, isn't it obvious? The Volturi are the only people that have any hostile feelings toward us, and who else would be able to take Bella, I mean, you saw her fight Emmett, she was amazing."

I listened to what she was saying, but I couldn't accept it. The Volturi were evil. They had no compassion, and would do anything to Bella, no matter how horrible. I had to get her out of there. Or I would die trying. If Bella died, I would want to be dead anyway.

"Edward? Are you there?"

"Alice what do you see them planning?"

"Edward, I didn't see Aro, Marcus, and Caius planning anything, but they are expecting Bella there, so they must have found a way around my powers."

"So what are you saying? What are they planning for Bella?"

"I don't know---- they don't know either. Please come home. We need a plan. How can you expect to go get Bella out of there anyway? You against the whole Volturi? That won't work Edward, and you know it. Just come home. We can get more people. Carlisle already called everyone he knows that would fight for Bella."

I fought not to hear her logic, but it didn't work. I knew she was right.

"Fine. I will be there in a few hours. Bye." I hung up the phone. Then I ran. Every step was hell, being away from my Bella. It was equal to the pain I felt when Bella was dying during the pregnancy. I didn't know if I would ever see her again. It felt like whenever we were happy, something came up to throw everything into chaos again.

As soon as I reached the house, my family ran out to hug and comfort me. It didn't work.

"Oh Edward, poor Edward." Esme was sobbing when she hugged me.

"It's not poor me mom, it is poor Bella. She is the one who is kidnapped."

"I know!" She sobbed on my shoulder. I felt a little bad, and gave her a bug hug.

I couldn't bring myself to say any words of encouragement, because I was so thoroughly depressed myself.

Alice was sitting on the stairs with Jasper and she was dry sobbing too. It was extremely hard to see her sob. I had never seen her do it before. Jasper was extremely worried too. He tried to comfort her with his calming powers, but it wasn't working, which worried him more. Emmett was murmuring words of encouragement to me, saying that the bastards that took Bella would pay. That was comforting, but I still just wanted to have Bella by my side. I had never felt so alone.

"Edward, I am glad to see you. We need to talk about how we are going to approach the Volturi. Let us go inside." Carlisle said calmly, though it was obvious even without reading his thoughts that he was anxious, unhappy, and worried.

We all went inside and sat in the living room. It felt different without Bella. It was cold and empty.

"HUH!" Alice gasped, and I saw what she was seeing.

Bella was in the turret room with the Volturi and Aro was asking her to join them. She didn't like that. I watched as she ripped the necks off of six members of the guard, including Felix, and did it all while defending herself. I was terrified for her. Watching her in full blown battle was like cutting a whole in my heart. I couldn't stand to see her in danger with me thousands of miles away. Then I watched in horror as three vampires grabbed her, and one ripped her arms off. It didn't look as though Bella even registered the pain of it, and kept struggling. Then they dragged Bella away from the room, and threw her into a dungeon, and Alice's vision stopped.

"NOO!" I shouted, right as Alice shouted,

"BELLA!"

"What?!" the rest of the family shouted in unison.

I couldn't speak. Alice told them, and they gasped in horror.

"I will kill them. I will kill them all for even thinking of hurting my sister." Emmett growled.

"Edward? We need to think of a plan now," Carlisle said, rubbing Esme's back.

"I know. So you called all the clans?" I asked emptily.

"Yes, and they will all be here shortly. They were all very concerned for Bella."

"Edward, I wanted to ask you," Rosalie said tentatively. "Would you want Nessie to be told about what happened? I thought it would be safer for them to stay out of it, but Carlisle pointed out that we can't get Zafrina to come here without them knowing, and we could really use her against the Volturi."

I thought about that. I knew Bella would absolutely hate it if Nessie was brought in to this whole thing, but then again, I would stop at nothing to get my Bella back, and we really needed Zafrina.

"I think we should call and tell them. I know that Nessie would want to know. She hates being left out of things. We also need Zafrina." I said.

"So do you want me to call, or…." Rosalie asked, looking at me like she didn't want to be the one to tell Nessie that her mother might never come home. I shrugged. I didn't think I could be in any more pain anyway.

"I will call." I picked up my phone and called Nessie. She answered on the second ring.

"Hi Daddy! How are you and Mom? Are you guys having a fun and relaxing time without me?"

I paused. "Nessie, I need to tell you something, and I know you are going to hate this, but I want you to come home before I tell you." There was a few moments of silence.

"What?" Nessie asked nervously."Is everything OK? Is it Mom? What's wrong Dad? Please tell me."

"Nessie, I don't want to tell you over the phone. Just….. Just please come home right away….. And could you tell Zafrina that we need her too? Nessie try not to worry, OK? It will be ok….. Just come home." Nessie interrupted immediately.

"Daddy, I'm scared, you have to tell me. How can you just leave me scared like this? I need you to tell me. Please?" Just like with Bella, I couldn't refuse this girl anything.

"Nessie I-----'' I sighed. "It is your mom. She um, was taken by the Volturi two days ago, and we need to gather, er, friends to help us get her back. I'm sorry Nessie; I didn't want to upset you."

I waited for her to speak, but I heard nothing.

"Nessie?" I was worried. "Nessie?" A different voice got on the phone.

"Edward? It's Jacob, I heard what you said. Nessie dropped the phone. She doesn't look too good. I am going to try to calm her down. But then I will go tell Zafrina, and we will be there in two days, okay? And I am so sorry."

"Thank you Jacob, for taking care of my daughter. It means so much to------to Bella and me. So thank you." My voice cracked on the last few words, and I hung up.

"Oh Edward!" Esme came and put her arms around me. It only helped if I pretended they were Bella's arms around me.


	4. Deja Vu

**4.) Déjà****Vu**

The next few days were like a repeat of the last time the Volturi upturned my existence. The house filled up quickly with vampires; Nessie and Jake came home to a house full of them. Nessie was a mess. She, being half human, could cry, and that was what she did the first day back with her family. Even seeing people like Benjamin, Tia, Maggie, Siobhan, Liam, Stefan, Vladimir, Peter, Charlotte, Randall, Amun, and Kebi for the first time in ten years didn't cheer her up. Carlisle managed to get Huilen and Nahuel to come and fight too, so with them, we had 36, including the wolf pack and the Denali clan. Knowing this didn't cheer Nessie up either, but after the first day, she stopped crying and wanted to learn how to fight, which both Jake and I quickly vetoed. She was not happy, but I would not allow her to fight. There was no way I was allowing her to come to any harm. Jake agreed with me.

I was miserable. I couldn't cry, but I wanted to desperately. I needed some form of release from the immense pain that filled every pore in my body. Being without Bella was like being a human without air. I felt like I was dying a slow, excruciatingly painful death with each breath I took. I couldn't escape it.

The plan was to attack the Volturi in the morning, the time of the day when both vampires and humans don't do much. We were going to take one plane with all of us, to stay together, get off in Italy, and take a bus into Volterra. We would then go through an old entry way that Carlisle remembered from the time he spent with the Volturi. He said this way was old and hardly used because the entrance was hidden just inside the walls of Volterra. The members of the Volturi were not allowed to feed on the humans inside of the city, so the chances for one of them to come out or go in this entry way was slim. We were to leave in two days.

"Daddy?" I turned slightly to see Renesmee walking slowly towards me.

"Hello Nessie." I said. I already saw what she was planning to do, but I held my arms out anyway. She hopped into my lap and gave me a big hug.

"I am so worried Daddy."

"I know sweetie. It will be okay. You will be safe _here_, so there is nothing to worry about. And Jacob will be with you." I knew where this conversation was going, but I let her continue anyway.

"Well that is actually what I came to talk to you about… I want to come with you Dad. I can't stand not being there with everyone I love, Dad. It's not fair. I just want to be there with you. Please?" She looked up into my face with her mother's eyes.

"You know, you are just like your mom. Did you know that? She said the same thing before you were born. She wanted to fight too. She was human and wanted to fight against a bunch of newborns thirsty for her blood." Thinking about Bella felt like peeling the skin off my bones piece by piece.

"Come on Dad, I am not a human. And stop changing the subject. There is nothing for you to worry about. Please?"

"Nessie, no, it's too dangerous. No way." But every time she said please, my resistance got weaker. She was too much like Bella.

"Daddy, please? I will be really careful---'' She stopped when Jacob walked through the door. But he had heard the conversation, and was not happy about it.

"Nessie what the heck are you going on about? You are _not_ going. That was settled the moment I heard about this."

"Jake go away, I was talking to my _Dad." _ Nessie turned back to me, giving me the puppy dog eye look that she used to get what she wanted.

"Edward, you are not _honestly_ thinking about saying _yes _are you? Why do you always insist on giving Bella and Nessie what they want? They are really bad at seeing what is best for _them_." Jacob was looking at me like I was crazy. I was.

"Your right. Sorry Nessie, you can't go. Besides, Bella would kill me if I did."

"Dad! Please! I am plenty old enough to take care of myself. This is stupid. Jake go away!" She looked torn over whether to give me the puppy dog face or give Jake the evil eye. She decided to ignore Jake and turned to me. That is when I picked her up and set her back on her feet.

"No Nessie. That's final. You are not going to get yourself killed."

"So you are saying that everyone else will die?" She looked like she was about to start bawling.

"No. I am saying that we are going to have to fight like crazy, and seeing as you don't know how to fight, you coming with us is out of the question."

"Well said." Jake grunted.

"UHHH! You guys are so unfair." Nessie shouted, and stormed off to complain to Zafrina and anyone who would listen.

"You okay?" Jake said, looking down at me.

"No. Why would I be? The love of my existence has been kidnapped. This also happens to be the longest I have spent away from her since I left her." I shuddered at the thought of that time, and then realized this was worse. At least _then_ I thought she was safe.

"Bella is the strongest person I know. She will make it through this."

"She got her _arms_ torn off. I don't think she is okay." I said stiffly.

"Well you bloodsuckers are pretty hardy. Can't she get put back together?"

"Yes. That is unless they burnt her arms _after_ they tore them off. And Jacob, I don't think the fact that they can be put back on makes them hurt any _less_ when they are torn off."

"Oh yeah. Sorry. I didn't think about that…" Jacob awkwardly shifted to his other leg. "Bella wouldn't want you to worry about her you know."

"Jake, if Nessie were kidnapped by murderous raving lunatics, would you stop being worried just because she wanted you not to be?"

"Good point."

"Yes."

"Hey you two." Alice walked into the room and plopped down on the couch next to me, followed by the majority of the vampires in the house.

"Hey." I responded emptily.

"Why don't you play the piano? Esme commented earlier that you hadn't played in about a week." Alice advised. I sighed. I didn't really want to play the piano; it would only remind me of Bella, as everything good did. I looked at Esme. She looked right back, pleadingly.

_Piano it is. _I thought.

I got up and went to the familiar seat, followed by the eyes of many people. I started off with Esme's favorite, just to appease her. After that piece was finished, I looked down at the keys, wondering what light, happy song to play next. My right hand moved up and down the keys, just playing with sounds. I found a sound I liked, and added harmony with my left hand. When I had come up with a pattern, I played it, and then added new sounds to it, so it wasn't repetitive. To my dismay, I soon found myself playing dark, dismal notes that sounded haunted, and realized the song was about being away from Bella. I tried to make the notes less scary, but I ended up morphing bits of Bella's Lullaby into it, making the song better, but obviously about Bella. I poured all of my feelings of being scared for Bella, missing her, needing her every second, into the music, and the house was filled with it. I ended the song with empty, sad, notes, and let the music fade out. I looked up and saw that Nessie was sitting at the top of the stairs with her face rested on her hands, tears streaming down her face. I saw that the rest of the people in the room were staring at me too, looks of pity, angst and sorrow on their faces. I couldn't look at anyone anymore. I got up from the piano and trudged up the stairs to Bella's and my room. I stopped briefly to give Nessie a hug.

I shut the door behind me and fell on the bed. I felt like a schmuck. Instead of making everyone happier, I made them scared and depressed. Great. I decided that I needed a distraction. I turned on my stereo to some classical music and groaned when Clair de Lune came on. One of Bella's favorites. Obviously music wasn't going to help. I turned off the stereo and looked out the window. Jasper, Emmet, Garret, Randal, and Peter were outside practice fighting.

_That might distract me for a bit…_ I thought, and I went outside.

"Edward! Come to join the fun?" Emmett boomed as I walked to where they were standing, watching Peter and Jasper fight. It was interesting seeing two old-timers fighting. Their techniques were similar, and it was a very even fight.

"Of course." I answered Emmett.

"Great, I call Edward." Emmett called to everyone else.

When Jasper and Peter were finished, Jasper having pinned Peter on the ground, Emmett and I stepped up to the plate.

"Get ready to eat dirt, Eddy." Emmett snickered.

"We'll see."

We paced in a circle around each other. I honestly tried not to listen to his thoughts, but I was hard, him being about to attack me. I saw him decide to advance, and easily side stepped him.

"No fair. It's so dumb when you do that. Oh well, I----''

I lurched at him mid-sentence and knocked his knees out from under him.

"Dang it!"

I allowed him to get up, and we circled each other again. I saw him planning on jumping, so I slid under him, and grabbed his back, pushing. Instead of him falling forward, as I had intended, he fell back on top of me, and held me there, grinning.

"Told you I would beat you!"

"Not so fast Emmett. Look at your leg." I said.

"What?" He asked, confused, turning his head.

I used his momentary distraction to push at his twisted neck with all my strength, and managed to create enough space between us to squeeze out and jump up. By the time he could get up, I was already pacing around him again.

"That was cheating! I beat you fair and square, and now you ruined it!"

"All's fair in love and war." I said smoothly.

He charged at me again. It was really pretty funny to watch Emmett fight. He relied on his strength to make him win, and in a way, it worked. As soon as he grabbed you it was almost impossible to get out. Unless, of course, you trick him. But he was so predictable, like a new born, you might say. He just did the same thing over and over. So for people like his family who have been with him for decades, it is really easy to overcome him. But for people that have never fought him before, they get scared at his strength and size, and they usually lose.

We all took turns fighting until it was seven o'clock at night. Then we trudged inside, muddy and wet. I had beat Emmett. He was mad about it too, so I decided to let him beat me once so he wouldn't be upset. If we died fighting, I didn't want him to still be even a little irritated with me.

When we had cleaned ourselves up, the whole group of vampires plus Jacob met in the living room to go over any questions or concerns about the plan. Carlisle stood up.

"I just wanted to thank all of you for yet again proving yourselves loyal, generous, and very kind to my family. We ask too much of you. It means more than you can imagine that you are willing to help our family even when it means danger for yourselves. Are there any questions about the plan or anything at all?"

"Yes. I have one. You have never said it straight out. If we go there, and they willingly give us Bella, are we just going to leave, or are you actually intent on a fight?" Randal, the nomad asked.

"That is a valid question, and my answer is no. I am not intent on a fight. I do not want anything to happen to any of you, and if they easily give us Bella, we will leave in peace. But, however, I do not see that as a very likely occurrence. I think it is probable that the Volturi are expecting us to start the clash on our own so they can claim that their actions were merely 'self defense', if you will." Carlisle answered.

"So you think this is a trap?" Tia asked nervously.

"In a way yes," Carlisle said. "When, ten years ago, they left, I recall Siobhan, (he inclined his head towards her) saying that the Volturi would not forgive what happened that day. Edward responded saying that she was right, they would not forget, and they would probably recover someday. He said that when they _did_ recover, they would try to pick us off separately. I believe that what they are doing now is along those lines, but quicker, more efficient. Aro knew that Bella was a disadvantage and that she needed to be taken care of if he had any hopes of killing us all. With Bella, his guard was just like a group of normal vampires, and we still had our special powers to beat him. He would be out numbered, and would lose. He also knew that our family would go anywhere and do anything to protect one of our own. Putting those two together, he chose to kidnap Bella. This ensured that we would not have her as an advantage, and also that we would go there to get her."

"But how did Alice not see him make that decision? No offence Alice." Carmen asked, looking apologetically at Alice.

"None taken. Carlisle, can I take this one?"

"Of course, Alice."

"Okay, well, I have been thinking about that, and I have come to a conclusion. It must have been one of the guard members that made the decision. I have been looking for Aro and Caius to make a decision, and they haven't. I also think that this decision was made a while ago, maybe right after the first incident. Aro could have told Caius his idea without it being officially the plan, and told him to pass the idea to maybe Jane or someone who knew everything about us, but wasn't in charge. Then they could have waited a while so everyone forgot about it, and then set it all in motion. They made a newborn, and then told him and Felix to go get Bella. It makes sense because then Aro would have known about it, but he didn't actually make a firm decision, so that is why I didn't see it happening. It also makes sense that I wasn't looking for them when Aro mentioned it because the whole fight had just taken place, and I wasn't worried about them retaliating so quickly. I messed up, so it was my fault. I am really sorry."

"It's not your fault Alice!" Jasper exclaimed, thinking that she had to stop blaming herself for things. Lots of other people in the room said something along those lines too.

"Thanks guys, but really I was supposed to-----.'' Her eyes went all blank, and the expression on her face froze.

I saw what she saw.

The Volturi were not waiting for us to come to them. They were coming here. And we didn't have Bella.

"What?!" Jasper cried anxiously, not knowing what was wrong.

"The Volturi just changed plans. They want to take as many of us out as possible before we make it to them. They will be here tomorrow." I said this slowly, not wanting what I said to be true.

"But they aren't bringing that many people. Just twenty. They don't know that we have so many people already. They didn't think we had enough time to do that. Last time it took weeks. This time it took days. They only expected the wolves and us to be the threat." Alice said reassuringly.

"But what if Jane or Alec comes? We have no protection!" Benjamin uttered miserably.

"I don't think Jane and Alec are coming. I think it's just normal fighters that they don't care about." Alice said, looking nervous though.

"Are you sure?" Peter asked.

"No, but I don't think that they would send out their valuable fighters if they knew that when we got to them, there would be a huge fight."

"When we get there, we might be able to get Bella to help us though, and in that case, Jane and Alec are pretty useless." Kate pointed out.

"What do you mean we _might_ get Bella to help us? You know that if Bella is in any fit state at all, she will do whatever she can to help." Jake asked sharply.

"Yes, _if_ she is in a fit state. For all we know, they might kill her as soon as we get there. They wouldn't need her as bait anymore, and she would just cause problems in the fight." Kate retorted.

I growled. "There is no way that is happening."

"Sorry, Edward, I am just pointing out possibilities."

"That is not a possibility, Kate; _nothing_ is going to happen to Bella." I retorted angrily.

"They haven't made any decisions out front yet about what they will do when we get there. All I know is that they are coming here, and they will be here tomorrow at about noon. So we should focus on that right now." Alice stated reasonably.

Everyone was silent, but I was still upset. There was no way that they would kill Bella. Aro was way too desperate to have her in his collection. For the first time in my existence, I was glad that Aro was so possessive of people he considered trophies. I was happy for anything that kept my whole existence alive.

"Jake you should go warn the wolves." Alice said quietly.

"Right. I will be back in a few Nessie." Jake stooped down and gave Nessie a kiss on the forehead, and then walked out the door.

Seeing this reminded me of something else. Nessie had to leave before the Volturi got here tomorrow. I would have to wait for Jake to get back so I could talk to him about it.

For twenty minutes I sat on the couch pretending to care about the baseball game on. Finally, I breathed a sigh of relief as Jacob ran up to the front door, and walked inside. I stood up and walked over to him, pulling him back outside.

"What's up?" He asked, curious. He thought I was going to go off on him for kissing Nessie on the way out. Yeah right.

"Relax, this isn't about you kissing Nessie, this is about the Volturi coming tomorrow."

"That's not exactly relaxing…"

"I want you to get Nessie out of here. Go to Seattle, or Vegas, or something. Just get her away before the fighting starts."

"Good idea. I was thinking about that on the way here… I think we will go to Vegas. Do you know when we should leave?"

I wanted her out of harm as soon as possible. "Now wouldn't hurt, but just be careful. Don't you dare let her be taken away like Bella. I will never forgive myself for letting that happen to her, and I will break you into a million little pieces if that happens to my daughter too."

"Don't worry. Nothing will ever hurt Nessie. And I will go tell her to pack up."

Jake and I walked back up into the house, and saw Nessie standing there with her suit case, looking thoroughly frustrated.

"Uh, Alice said I was going on a trip to Vegas? And she packed my bags?" She looked questioningly at Jacob, and then at me.

"Yeah Nessie, we are!" Won't that be cool?" A redeeming vacation for South America. Kind of." Jake answered Nessie's questions brightly.

"This is just about me not being here for the fighting, right? That is so stupid. I don't want to go to stupid Vegas; I want to fight with my family! I'm not a human! I can fight!" Nessie stomped her foot on the ground indignantly.

"Come on Nes, please? For me?" Jake looked at Nessie with a look that he thought would make her listen, but it just looked like he was constipated to me. Nessie thought he looked pretty stupid too. She laughed.

"Jake, you have never been the convincing type. You kind of look like you just got stabbed in the foot with scissors. And no. I am not going to ditch my family to go to some stupid party city."

Jake lost all sense of patience. "Oh yes, you are." He growled.

"And just how do you think you will make me?"

"Oh, like this." Jake smiled evilly and picked her up, swinging her upside-down. She was not happy, to say the least.

"PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT JACOB BLACK!" Nessie screamed.

"Nope. You are now in my custody. And you will be until not just the fight that will happen here tomorrow is over, but until _all_ of this is over. You are not going anywhere without me." Jacob said self assured.

"You DOG! You MUT! You---- You! UGGGGHH!" She snarled in rage, and for a hybrid vampire-human child, it was pretty impressive.

Jacob laughed. "Nice growl Nessie!" He decided it would probably be best to put her down. He did, and quickly put his arms around her. "Nessie please, I couldn't live if anything happened to you. Even the thought of it makes me want to skewer myself on a telephone pole. Please? I love you more than anything in this universe. I need you to be safe." His eyes were deep and his voice was gentle. And Nessie was falling for it like a fly flying to a light.

"Jake….. I don't know… This whole situation just sucks…."

"Please Renesmee? Please?"

"Dang it Jacob. Fine. But if anyone in my family dies, I will be very mad at you."

Jake was thinking that she was going to be angry for a long time then. _Anything to keep her safe. _He thought. I was glad my daughter had him.

"Good bye sweetie. I love you so much. I will tell your mom you love her okay? I love you" I hugged Nessie tightly against me, wishing I didn't have to say goodbye. I didn't know if this was the last time I would see her or not. "Good bye Jacob. Thank you for everything you have done for my family and for Nessie. I love you, son." I have him a big hug too, and he hugged me back just as enthusiastically. Nessie had tears streaming down her face uncontrollably. She was in agony not knowing if she would see us ever again. She missed Bella almost as much as I did, and now on top of hurting for her, she hurt for the whole family, plus all of the wolves, and all of our friends. I hated the pain she was in, but I would rather her suffer worry than not be alive. She had to live.

When Nessie and Jake left, I went back to feeling tortured. I hated every second I was away from Bella. _ I wonder what she is doing right now... I wonder if she is in pain… God I hate not knowing. This is hell. There is nothing in the world worse than this. _

I heard Jasper's thoughts. _He is really in pain. I hate this. Poor Bella. Poor Edward. Poor Alice. Poor Nessie. Poor _everyone_. _ Then he tried to pacify my misery with his calming gift. He knew it didn't work. I knew it didn't work. But it was the thought that counted. The only thing that could possibly help me was being with Bella.


	5. Sitting Ducks Around The Fire

**So this is chapter five. I really would like a lot more reviews before I post any more chapters. I have a lot of people that come to look at this story, but not many that review. Reviewing makes a HUGE difference. Please review, and I will be your friend FOREVER! Plus I will post more chapters!**

**Anyway, hope you like this chapter! It picks up! :)**

**5.) Sitting Ducks around the Fire**

The next day came, and we moved out into the yard to wait for the Volturi. Our attack plan was to hide way up in the trees and let Zafrina blind as many people as possible, and then attack them. The wolf pack was in the tree's too and would wait to phase, but this made them extremely uneasy and I could hear them panicking in their thoughts. Alice looked forward into the near future and saw that they would arrive in two minutes. We all stayed perfectly still and silent. And then we heard them.

They came running through the trees, about twenty of them. As they passed underneath us, Zafrina blinded as many as she could, this was about a dozen. I heard them fall; shouting, and immediately one of our friends jumped on top of them and killed them. The rest of us jumped down and started to fight the remaining vampires. Alice had been right, thankfully. Jane and Alec were not here. It was just random guard members. I felt a little bad killing them because they may not really know what they were doing, but they were very determined to kill, and it was either kill or be killed.

I got to fight four men. The first was huge, not as big as Emmett, but big enough to look very threatening. His fighting techniques were very skilled. He fought as though he had had a lot of experience, but I could hear what he was planning, and knew just what to do to win. The next one was tall but lanky looking. He made up for his lack of strength with speed and was surprised when I beat him in that area too. The next two ganged up on me. They both had a similar physic, medium build, strong, but not very fast. I was able to kill one and calculate the other's move to jump out of the way before three seconds passed. When I was done, I turned around. I was glad Nessie wasn't here. There were so many body parts strewn on the ground that I had to look away. It looked like I had stepped into a horror movie and the serial killer had just finished hacking up his victims. I quickly scanned the minds of my friends, looking to see if anyone on our side had suffered the fate of the vampires on the ground, but found nothing bad. I looked over and saw Carlisle starting a fire to throw the pieces into. Everyone helped pick up, and soon we were finished, and we watched the fire.

"That was kind of disappointing…" Emmett said, looking at the clock and seeing that the fight and clean up had taken less than an hour.

"Shut up Emmett. You'll get your fight soon enough." I said, irritated that he could take this whole situation so lightly.

"Just saying, they didn't put up much of a fight."

"Yes they did. But Zafrina blinded them, so they couldn't do much. We owe the short and easiness of that to her. She was vital to us winning." Tanya said this matter-of-factly, and nodded to Zafrina.

"It was nothing, my dear." Zafrina said easily. She was thinking that anything she could do to help us was exactly what she would do.

"So we should leave for Italy now, then. We don't have to stick around here anymore." I said eager. I needed to see Bella. I was quickly unraveling.

"Yes, we should leave shortly. Everyone should prepare to leave in a half hour. This is about an hour after the time we were going to leave initially, so we will have to hurry when we get to Italy. We need to catch the right bus." Carlisle told us. I could hear in his thoughts that we really needed to hurry to catch the right bus, there was only one per day, and I really couldn't wait another day to get to Bella. Carlisle just didn't want to rush the people that had saved our lives.

"I don't mean to be rude, but Carlisle was belittling the urgency of us leaving right now. If we miss this train, we will have to wait another twenty-four hours, and we really can't afford to do that. So please, if you could, hurry." I said this gently, but firmly. I looked at Carlisle, and he was thinking,

"_Sorry Edward, I shouldn't have downplayed that. I know you are in pain."_

"It's alright." I smiled at him, but he didn't think the smile touched my eyes.

Everyone was ready in five minutes. They were all being extremely kind to me. It must not have been pleasant to know that you might be rushing to your death. We all piled into the cars, which was about a dozen of them, and left for the air port. We arrived in a half hour, which was a feat because the nearest one was in Port Angeles. We all walked nonchalantly through the crowed as if we didn't know each other. The couples walked with each other, but other than that we acted as loners. I don't think it worked very well. We were all very beautiful to humans, and a group of about forty of them tended to catch the eye. We were gawked at. We all got on the same plane and sat in the same area. We did this so we could have quick conversations in very low voices without any human hearing us.

About half-way through the plane ride, Tanya, who was sitting next to me, leaned over to talk. She was worried about me. Apparently I looked "vacant".

"Are you alright Edward? Scratch that. That was a stupid question. Edward, I am worried about you. You need to relax a bit. You will see Bella very soon. We will be fine. With Bella we out number them, even with their whole guard. And this time they don't even have stupid witnesses. We will be fine, you'll see." She squeezed my hand reassuringly.

"Thank you, Tanya. I appreciate that." I gave her hand a squeeze back, but then went back to how I was before. I just took too much energy to be normal when Bella wasn't with me. I was hardly even the same person.

Long, long hours later, the plane landed. We had ten minutes to reach the bus. We didn't bother to get our small bags from the luggage. It was nothing but supplies for burning vampires, and it was doubtful that the Volturi wouldn't have it anyway. We walked as fast as we could without drawing too much attention, and still barely made it to the bus in time. Emmett had to run out and stop the nearly empty bus from leaving, and irritated and confounded the driver as a three dozen group of stunningly beautiful people got on the almost always empty bus.

The ride would take three hours, and it was one o'clock in the morning, so we would arrive outside the walls of Volterra at about four. That would be a great time to sneak into the entrance. I the mean time, I was anxious, scared, and jumpy. Alice made Jasper sit by me to help me feel better, but after an hour of it not helping me and it hurting him; she apologized to me quietly, giving me a hug, and then pulled Jasper away to the opposite side of the bus. After a while, Rosalie of all people came to sit by me. She was thinking about what to say, and felt really bad for me. It was a lot coming from Rosalie.

"Edward?" She asked finally.

"Yes, Rosalie?"

"I just wanted to say that you are a really good brother. I know that I am not always the nicest person, but you put up with me. I also wanted you to know that… I love you. I am so happy that I have the family I do, and even though you may not know it, I hate it when you are hurting. I'm sorry my thoughts are always so vain. I really have been trying to work on it. So thank you. And… that's all." She got up quickly and walked back to Emmett quickly.

I was pretty shocked. I never saw that side of Rose before. I didn't even know what she was about to say when she said it, because I don't think _she_ even knew what she was going to say. That meant she really meant it. She spoke from her heart.

I was too busy mulling over what Rosalie said to hear Alice's thoughts when she gasped and shouted a very bad word. I listened to what she had just seen, and stood up. Then I saw the looks of the human passengers on the bus and sat down. I then spoke very quickly.

"Alice just saw that in five minutes a member of the Volturi will stop this bus, looking for a quick morning snack. We will be on the bus. He has a walky-talky that connects to the rest of the Volturi, and will ruin our whole plan if he is able to call them before we stop him. There is only one of him, and many of us. We must stop him."

I looked at the faces of my family and friends, scared and concerned. I would hate it if any of them were hurt. We waited impatiently as the clocked ticked slowly by. After about three and a half minutes, I heard his thoughts as he trailed along after the bus.

_I hate having to come all the way out here just to get a few measly humans. They are never that good when they---- is that….. Vampire sent?_

I cursed loudly, not caring when the humans shot alarmed stares at me.

"What is it?" Carlisle asked.

"The vampire caught our scent. He is trailing along about 12,000 feet behind us. I don't think he will wait to check us out before he calls to the main building. Damn it!" I listened more to the vampire behind us.

_What would one of us be doing all the way out here on a bus? I have never smelled that scent before….. It's almost like----- wait….. That's more than one! Smells like…… a lot! What in the world? There is a nasty smelling thing in there too! I should probably call…. Or check them out…. I bet everyone would hate me if I dragged their butts down here for nothing… I will just take a peek. They don't even know I'm here…._

I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked up and everyone was waiting for me to say something.

"He's coming to check us out, so we still have a chance. Everybody, look like you are doing something and don't look out the windows." I said this very quietly, not wanting to chance the vampire overhearing me.

We waited as the vampire got closer, and saw as he flashed pass the bus and ran ahead to look like he was hitchhiking. The bus driver saw him, and we inched to a stop. The doors opened, and the vampire stepped onto the bus. He looked straight at us all, amazed at our number, and then we broke. Zafrina blinded the humans on the bus, and so they immediately started yelling. I didn't know why, but as soon as the yelling started, the vampire hopped off the bus, and backed away, quickly pulling out his walky-talky.

"No!" The remainder of the people on the bus that weren't already yelling shouted.

The vampire looked at us, looked down at his walky-talky, and then high-tailed it out of there. We chased him of course, but he already had the walky-talky on and it was tuned into the Volturi's head quarters. He was shouting what was happening into it, and giving his location. He had barely finished the last word of the location when I tackled him, his walky-talky flying out of his hand. I quickly killed him, and turned to the others, who were staring at me with fearful eyes. I looked down at the pieces of the vampire and decided that we had to burn them.

"But Edward, it will attract attention from miles away, and we don't have time!" Alice cried.

I saw in her head that she saw us getting captured. I wouldn't give up that easily. But as I searched for options in my head I saw that because the Volturi knew we were here, we probably wouldn't be able to get near Volterra, much less _inside_ to get to the entrance. And if we split up to run, we would have much less of a chance to fight together. If we split up and ran, we might not ever reach Bella, and we _needed_ to get to Bella.

"We are going to purposely get caught. We need to go in there together and fight together. If we split up and run, they will probably kill some of us off. If we run together, they will find us anyway because our scent is so strong. We have to get caught together. It's the only way." I said this slowly, deliberately, and watched as my family and friends accepted it.

"Okay, then light the fire. We might as well take this son of a bitch with us." Emmett said this very straight forward and I almost cracked a smile. If only I were capable.

"Well said Emmett!" Garrett grunted, mock punching Emmett in the shoulder. They started a fire after quickly rubbing sticks together. The nomads were experts at it.

While this exchange took place, the rest of the friends gathered and said their goodbyes to their loved ones, not knowing who would come out of this alive, if any. Carlisle held Esme's hand, kissed her on the cheek, and they went around to each of the friends he called to help us, and thanked them, apologizing. They all brushed the apologies away saying that we would do the same for them. We would of course, but this was the second time in a row that we had called them and asked them to risk their lives for one of our family members.

Alice and Jasper stared into each other's eyes, holding hands. They looked as though there was nothing else in the world but them at the moment. Emmett and Rosalie kissed each other passionately, not caring that they were surrounded by other people. Kate and Garret hugged each other, relaxing for what might be the last time ever, and Benjamin and Tia kissed too, shortly, and then just held each other. In the midst of all the "goodbyes" and "I love you's," I imagined Bella there with me, holding me. I missed her more than I had missed anything in my life. I almost couldn't wait to be captured. The time for that came soon enough though.

We heard them approach, circling us, but we made no moves to run or fight. We let them, all fifty to take us. The whole guard was there accept the Coven. While each member of the guard grabbed someone, Jane and Alec walked along, watching. They didn't have to do anything. We all knew that even without the people restraining us, Jane and Alec could make us feel agony, or feel nothing at all. Both were better than living without Bella, so I didn't really care when Jane walked right up to me.

"Well, well, look who we have here." Jane got up on her tippy toes and spoke right next to my face. "I guess your little rescue mission was unsuccessful. Without your little witch you can't even stop this."

The agony really wasn't as bad as I had braced myself for. I didn't scream. I just fell to the ground and took it. I was so much better than my pain for Bella. Jane didn't like that I was silent. Without her master here to make her stop after a while, she just kept going. She tried making it even more painful, and when I still didn't scream, she turned towards Alice.

"No!" I shouted, but it was too late.

Alice did scream. She had never felt Jane's power before, and didn't know what to expect. When Jasper saw Alice on the ground, screaming, writhing in pain, he ran at Jane, knocking the restraining arms from his chest. She switched her smile to him, and he fell too, shouting, to the ground. She tried her power on each of the people there, relishing the screams that were the result. She then switched back to me, which I preferred. It was much more painful to see people like Esme being tortured. I was so glad that Nessie wasn't here.

When Jane was finally done with her torturing, we were dragged back to Volterra. Ironically, the entrance that we went in was the one Carlisle thought we could go through without them noticing. It turned out they used it quite often. After laughing out loud, and everyone, including my family, was thinking I was crazy, I quit feeling and listened to the thoughts of Jane and Alec to see what they planned for Bella. The tunnel was about as high as a refrigerator was. That made it hard to walk, and the guards holding us didn't like having to stoop either. The march seemed to take forever. It was easy to understand though because we had to walk underneath the whole city to get to our destination. Finally after about ten minutes, the tunnel started to ascend, and then there was a whole above our heads. The guards went through first, and then pulled us up after them. After we were all up, Alec and Jane came too. I couldn't believe where we were.

We were in the turret room. I almost started laughing again at the irony. It was probably a good thing we got caught. We definitely would have lost a lot of people trying to come in this way. The ones that didn't get killed just getting into the tunnel would have had a nasty surprise. Walking into the very heart of the Volturi. At least we were still all together.

"Ah, you brought our friends back! Well done Jane and Alec!" Aro cried happily when we were all in the room.

"Yes master, they were just camped around a fire, happy as could be when Alec and I found them!" Jane said proudly, puffing out her chest.

"Well done!" He said again, and then he turned to Carlisle innocently. "How are you old friend? It has been ages. What brings you to Volterra?"

"Aro, you know very well why we are here. You kidnapped my daughter-in-law. That is who we came for. If you give her back, we will leave peacefully." Carlisle said this carefully, knowing full well there was now nice way of saying what needed to be said.

"Dear Carlisle, I just wanted all of us to come together! We would all be so happy here you know! It is always better to work together than to stand apart!"Aro smiled happily at Carlisle. I could read his mind, and Aro knew that there was no way we would ever agree to stay here. He was provoking us. It was working.

"Whatever your intentions Aro, we want Bella back. Just release her, and we will leave in peace. We do not want to join you here. We have a good home, and we are happy. Please give us Bella."

"Alright we will call Bella out here and let her choose, yes?" Aro called over his shoulder to Felix and Demetri who left the room. While they were gone, Jane decided to play torture, and looked at me. I heard her try to work her power, but it wasn't working.

_Bella._ I thought.

Jane looked at Aro, startled, and placed her hand in his. He chuckled a few moments later.

"It would seem Bella can shield anyone in the building. How delightful." Aro said this lightly, but I could hear in his thoughts that he didn't like that. I heard Alice gasp.

In the future she saw Bella being tortured.

"NOOOOOO! NO! NO! NO!" I struggled to break free from the man behind me, but another man in the room stepped up and helped him restrain me. Aro smiled at me.

"What is it young friend?"

"I am NOT, and will _never_ be your friend! You are a vile, evil, creature that deserves to rot!" I shouted at him

"My, Edward, is that any way to treat your host?"

I growled at him, wanting to pounce and rip his neck off, but I stopped, because that's when I heard her.

Bella was coming.


	6. Strong

**This is chapter six! I hope you like it! Please review! I would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if you did!!! :)**

**Thank you for reading! **

Bella

6.) Strong

After a while I stopped knowing what day it was. No one came to see me, but I was glad. I just curled up in my misery, and let it have me. My arms were fine again. There were barely even marks from where they were ripped off. I didn't care either way. I would give both arms and both legs just to _see_ Edward and Nessie again, literally.

The only thing other than missing Edward and Nessie that I could think about was the conversation I had overheard the other day while wallowing in my agony. I wasn't sure who one of the voices belonged to, but one of them belonged to Jane. My insides burned with fury when I heard her voice. She was answering a question that I hadn't heard.

"Of _course_ he's always quiet; ever since Didyme died he has acted like a pathetic corpse." Jane said big headedly.

"What happened to her?" The unknown voice asked.

"Don't you know anything? This all happened ages ago! Everyone knows about it. Well, except Marcus, of course"

"I haven't been here very long."

"Well obviously." Jane said sarcastically. "Well, if you must know, Aro killed her."

"Killed who?"

"Who? He killed _Didyme_, you idiot!"

"Oh." The voice paused. "Why did he do it?"

"Well, Marcus started acting different, like he didn't care about being in the Volturi coven anymore. He was too busy getting all _googly_-_eyed_ over that little princess, Didyme. Of course, _I_ would have gladly taken over Marcus' place. I have always been a favorite of Aro's." She said smugly. "Anyway, Aro knew that if he didn't stop Marcus' behavior, he would probably leave, and Aro didn't like that. So he killed her."

"And Marcus doesn't know?"

"No, I already said that _dimwit_."

"Oh, sorry." The second voice said, and then they stopped talking.

I thought over all I had heard, and began, even against my will, to feel sorry for Marcus. His own _brother _killed his wife, and he didn't even know about it. Aro was even more twisted than I thought. Maybe I would get a chance to tell Marcus what Aro did. I doubted it. And he probably wouldn't believe me anyway.

The topic got old in my head very quickly, and soon I was back to thinking about Edward.

_I didn't even get to say good bye to him. _I thought, curling myself tighter into a ball. I couldn't help but think that this was the worst time of my life. The only other time comparable was my time without Edward, and at least then I knew he was safe. This was also the longest I had been without Nessie. I hated that if I died I wouldn't get to be a mother to her. She deserved a mom. I need to get out of here I thought. I need to be there for Nessie. If I'm not alive, Edward would kill himself, and Nessie would be an orphan. I shuddered at the thought and sat up for the first time since I curled into a ball. It felt like that had been months ago, but that couldn't be right. Though I hated to do it, I walked over to the guard at the door, who watched me like he had been sure I couldn't walk.

"What day is it? How long have I been here?"

The man grinned. "How long does it feel like, sugar?"

I ignored his ignorance. "Too long… Please tell me."

"Fine, you have been in here for five days."

I looked, shocked at the guard. _Had it really only been that long_?

"Are you lying to me?" I asked suspiciously.

"Why would I? Nothing in it for me."

I looked at him for a minute, and decided he was telling the truth. Either that or he was a really good liar. _Whatever._

I walked back to my corner and sat down, thinking of all the different ways I could attack this man to escape. I could always just break the wall behind me, but I didn't know how many walls were beyond that to break. The guard would probably catch me before I could escape anyway. There was only one more guard outside that I knew of, and if I killed him, I could run to the exit. I knew I could run faster than anyone here, but I couldn't fool myself. The chances of me just strolling out of here were not high. But I had to try. What was the worst they could do? Drag me back here?

_They could kill me. _I thought.

I shrugged. I would not just lie down and take this. I was strong. I could do this. _I think_.

Out of the blue I had the urge to flex my shield, so I did, I stretched it out as far as I could, and while doing that, felt a very familiar sunny aura come under my shield.

I stopped breathing. _Edward. My Edward. He's here._

Then I felt a jab at the shield aimed at Edward, and I knew that Jane was hurting people again. I recognized so many different people in my shield. It almost felt like….. Like everyone from the first fight with the Volturi was back, fighting again. I looked at the guard, but he looked oblivious to everything that was going on. But then again, he had probably been stuck in here for the last five days too.

I listened with all my might to hear Edward and was surprised when it wasn't hard.

"NOOOOOO! NO! NO! NO!" I heard him scream, and I was terrified beyond reason. The guard had heard it too.

"What are they _doing_ to him!?" I cried wildly.

"How would I know? I have been----- There was a knock on the door, interrupting him.

"Open up John, its Felix and Demetri. We are taking Bella out now. Don't really know why; if it were up to me, I would leave her to rot." Felix knocked on the door again.

"Okay, will do. Get in the corner." The man called John replied and then ordered to me.

_I'm _already_ in my corner, genius._ I thought sarcastically, but I pushed myself further into the room. I needed to get to Edward, so if that took me getting treated like dirt, I was all for it.

Felix and Demetri walked into the room. Felix looked livid. The last time I had seen him, I ripped his head off. Demetri just glared, even though I didn't rip any of _his_ appendages off, he still was no fan of mine.

"Get up, now." Felix growled. "And turn around."

I did what they said and waited for whatever painful thing they would do to me. I felt Felix's arms snake around my body, and he put his body against mine.

"Nice to see you again, Bella. How have _you_ been? Lonely? I was thinking about coming to see you, but I was a little busy." He said this thickly, wanting to provoke me. I don't know how, but he knew the exact things to do to push my buttons.

"Hands off Felix." I said dryly, and I made a move to step forward, but his arms retrained me, keeping me against him.

"Just doing my job, darling. I was sent down here to get the prisoner, wouldn't want a mass breakout would we now?" He started pulling me towards the door, Demetri and John smirking all the way. I was fuming. I hated him touching me. I felt tainted. I wanted to tear his head off again, but he was taking me to Edward, and even though I didn't want to admit it, I was thankful. That is until he moved his hand down to my butt.

"Get your filthy hands _off_ me Felix! I am not kidding; do you want me to rip your head off again? It was easy the first time, and I was surrounded by a lot more people. It should be really easy now!" I threatened hotly. I jerked away from his hands. Immediately Demetri and John swarmed me.

Felix didn't like what I said at all. "You shut up girl; I could rip you to pieces right now. Do _not_ tempt me."

I was silent. I needed to stop losing my temper. If this continued, he might just throw me back into my cell. I was quiet as we walked through the halls, and it seemed like the longest walk ever. I held my breath as we came to the turret room door which Demetri opened. We walked in, and I gasped at all my friends and family that were here.

My eyes searched for the center of my existence, and I found him, in the center of all the people, staring at me in horror. His eyes looked like they were drinking me up, and I bet my eyes looked the same way. I couldn't bring myself to worry about why he was looking at me like I was going to die; I was finally with Edward, and that made me happy, no matter where we were.

"Hello Bella, how are you?" Aro asked me pleasantly, but I ignored him. I opened my shield to Edward, keeping the shield around everyone else, and let him hear my thoughts.

_Edward. I love you. I love you. I love you. I missed you more than you can imagine. Oh Edward, I'm sorry this all happened, I should have fought harder or done something that would have prevented all of this. I love you._

"Bella I love you, I love you." He shouted to me, and he struggled against the five men holding him, trying to get to me. Edward suddenly looked at Jane, then at me, and shouted, "NOO!"

I realized a second too late what was going on, and tried to snap my shield over me again, but to no avail. I got a glimpse of what Jane's poison was really like. I gasped and fell to my knees. My shield had received most of it though, so I stood up again.

I glared daggers at Jane, and then looked at Aro.

"How do you think I am Aro? You cut my arms off and threw me into a cell. Does that sound like a happy picnic to you?"

"Well Bella, you _did _tear the heads off of six of my best men. I was quite impressed. Even without your delightful gift, you would make an excellent member of the guard." Aro shook his head slightly, as though agrivated at my skill. I glared back at him.

"So what do you want now? I assume it will be along the same lines as last time? You ask me a stupid question, I respond with the obvious answer, and you throw me back into a cell?"

"Well the question is a little similar. I was going to ask you to join me again, but this time, with your family here to encourage you."

Encourage me? I didn't understand what he meant. I looked at Edward, who was shaking his head fiercely, still trying to shake off the guards.

"I will never join you, I don't care about you or anyone of your stupid little guards, so let us go. We have already established all of this; you are just wasting your own time." I bellowed.

"I don't think I am. Felix?" Aro called to Felix, who came up behind me. "Felix will you make Bella see reason?"

"Sure thing, boss." Felix grinned evilly, and then he punched me in the back of the head. I staggered forward, only to be pushed back by the circle of guards around me.

"What are you doing Felix?" I whispered calmly.

"Getting you to see reason. Open your shield."

"What? Why would I do that? Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Yes, I do, and _this_ is why you would do that." Felix snapped his fingers and the man restraining Esme came forward.

"Bella, open your shield or I will kill _her." _Felix grinned at me, and then traced his finger along Esme's throat. I looked at Esme.

"Bella darling, don't do it. Don't do it. Don't listen to them." She was dry sobbing, and looked terrified. I would never let anything happen to her. I looked at the rest of my family, all shouting things at Aro, Felix, Esme, or me. I didn't care that I would suffer. I kissed Esme on the cheek before Felix could pull me back, and then I let my shield down.

"Do you want her to die, Bella?" Felix asked again.

"Let her go Felix, it's already done."

As soon as I said that, I felt agony. I fell to the floor, writhing, not being able to control it for a few seconds, but then I used my practice from those days of burning while turning into a vampire, and locked my body up. I didn't scream, and I didn't move. I kept all my muscles firmly still and realized the pain wasn't as bad as it was when I changed. Compared to that, this was easy. The only part that wasn't easy was that I knew Edward could read my thoughts. There was no way around it. To save Esme, I had to subject Edward to pain. I hated it. I tried not to think about the pain I was in to help Edward, but I doubt it helped. I tried to distract him with something, anything.

_I'm okay Edward. I love you, please don't be mad that I kept this from you, but when I changed into a vampire, the morphine didn't help with the pain, it only made it impossible for me to move. After it had worn out, I made myself stay still and silent. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I love you. I love you. _

Jane snarled in anger. She was truly putting every ounce of power she had into torturing me, and she still didn't get me to move.

"She didn't take her shield down!" Jane accused angrily when Aro told her to stop some ten minutes later.

"There is an easy way to test that." Aro said, and he walked up to Edward. Edward tried to evade Aro's hand, but couldn't due to his restrainers, and Aro took Edward's hand. Aro stayed for a few moments, relishing the advantages of Edward's gift, and then turned to me, panting and trying to stand.

"That is impossible. How did you not move or make any noise? You even had coherent thoughts as it was happening. There is no doubt that you felt all of it." He looked at me for a few more moments, and then turned to Felix and nodded.

Felix immediately took something out of his back pocket, strode over to me and stabbed me in the side with it, pain filled me.

I gasped, not expecting it, and shouted, "What do you wish to accomplish by this? Making me join you? You will have to kill me first!"

"It may come to that." Felix grinned, and he twisted his weapon into me more, causing pain to shoot through my body. When Felix pulled it out, and I got a glimpse of what his weapon was. It was the hand of a vampire, all the skin torn off, and just the bone was left. That's why it went into me. It takes a lot to destroy a vampire.

Then Felix stabbed me again in the back. The pain was immense. It wasn't as bad as Jane's power, but it was a different kind of pain. There was still venom on the bone, which meant that its detachment was pretty recent. I shuddered to think of who they killed, and looked up questioningly to Edward, who had his eyes locked on me and was shouting my name over and over.

It looked like he was the one being tortured. His eyes made him look like he was burning slowing on a stake. I couldn't bear to look at him like that. I knew I was causing him that pain.

This time when Felix stabbed me, Jane used her powers on me at the same time. I couldn't control the small shriek that escaped my lips, and I fell to the ground. This time it took me longer to gain control of my body. I froze myself on the ground, but Felix dragged me up by the hair, pulled the bone out of me, and stabbed me again. I whimpered, but I didn't scream. Jane was smiling now. She knew that I was in agony. Felix let me fall to the ground.

"Stand up Bella." Aro said evenly.

I didn't think it would be possible. Jane was still torturing me. I struggled to keep quiet, and I slowly rose to my feet. When I was standing, Aro walked over to me.

"Speak to me." Aro was enjoying this. It seemed he knew exactly what would be impossible for me to do.

I tried to ignore the excruciating pain that filled me, and opened my mouth. I couldn't stop the scream that followed, and quickly shut my mouth. My whole body was shaking; I could barely stand. I couldn't concentrate on both standing and speaking, so I shrank to my knees, and tried speaking again.

"Rot----- In-----Hell------ You-----Evil----Despotic----Fiend''I gasped after each word and my voice was barely above a whisper. Once I had spoken, I stood up.

"Stand _and _speak, Bella." Aro said peacefully.

Anger boiled under my skin. A red tint covered my eyes.

"NOO! I HATE YOU!" I shouted beyond anger.

Aro snapped his fingers and Felix stabbed me with another bone. I whirled around to face Felix, and before anyone could do anything, I had jumped up and ripped his head off again. Felix's body fell with a thud, and his head rolled to Aro's feet. Aro looked down at it disdainfully.

"He will not be happy. This is the second time…"

"He deserved it." I gasped. I pulled the remaining bones out of me and threw them out the nearest window, breaking the glass. Guards finally came up and grabbed me again.

"Join us Bella. No one wants this to continue." Aro soothed.

"Yeah, except----- for you!" I was getting better at speaking through the pain. My words were louder now. I was still standing, and Jane was still smiling at me, trying incapacitate me.

"Bella, Bella, what will we have to do to make you see sense?" Aro was walking in circles now, maybe trying to decide what to do with me next.

"You can't do anything! You will never make me join you."

Aro paused for a moment, and then smiled, looking at Edward. "Hmmm. Would you do it, maybe, if Edward was in danger?" The men holding Edward dragged him forward. Edward was still screaming my name and trying to escape.

"NOOOOO! NO! Bella, don't do anything they say no matter what! Even if they hurt me!"

They were planning on hurting Edward. That could not happen.

"Demetri, come over here." Aro ordered. Demetri walked over to Edward and looked at Aro. Aro nodded, and Demetri pulled out more bones.

This time, instead of stabbing me, he stabbed Edward.

Seeing that shattered me. I don't think I had ever been more infuriated in all my life. I could barely see due to the red that covered my eyes. My skin was tingling. I had never felt it happen before, but I felt like my skin was stretching out around me, like it was expanding. It felt a tiny bit similar to when I stretched my shield, but that was just over my mind. When I did _that,_ it just felt like I was stretching my mind. This was entirely different.

I didn't really know what I was doing, but I forced the thing like my skin outwards away from me, and through the red haze I saw Demetri, Edward, Jane, and Alec fly back. I didn't know what had pushed them, and looked around. I saw Aro behind me, looking at me with terrified eyes, and then realized that it was _me_ that pushed them back.

I now had another shield that could physically block people.

I decided to test this on Aro and Caius. Caius, who was behind him, had been surprisingly quiet. I thought of all the things Aro had done and felt energy surge around me from my anger. I once again pushed the shield out from me, but this time harder. I not only knocked back Aro and Caius, but the people on that whole side of the room flew back and crashed into the wall, about fifteen feet away, breaking it into pieces. Shock ran threw me, and I momentarily lost the red haze on my eyes. I looked back at my family, and saw twenty guards walking hesitantly towards me. The red haze returned, and I raised my hand.

"I _know_ you don't want to do that." I carefully shaped my shield into a long, thin barrier, and wrapped it around the guards like a rope, making the shield squeeze tighter and tighter. They couldn't get out of it either. They were stuck, and were getting smashed as if between two walls. I watched, curious, to see how close together I could make the shield go, and was astonished when I saw the guards break into pieces and fall to the floor as dust. I pulled back my shield in alarm.

_How the heck am I _doing_ this?! _I thought to myself, but Edward shouted,

"Bella, look out!"

I turned around and saw that the thirty people that I had thrown against the wall were now getting up and running over to stop me. I swung my shield up, not hurting them, but creating a wall. I then created a wall around all the family and friends that were behind me. I walked towards the edge of my shield lazily. I had the upper hand. I could kill them all. And I would.

"Do you still want me to join you _now_ Aro?" I asked, cynically.

"I---- Bella, we meant you no----'' Aro started, stuttering.

"Harm?" I finished for him. "Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking the whole time you were running me and Edward through with vampire bones. You really must not have wanted to hurt me."

"Bella, please, give me a chance to speak. I just wanted you to join us. I really wanted it, so I had to resort to certain measures to accomplish that."

"He's lying." Maggie, who had the ability to see through lies, said from across the room. "He has been the whole time. He may have started off wanting you in his group ten years ago, but he knew that wasn't possible, so if _he_ couldn't have you, no one could."

"What? That's ridiculous!" Aro said nervously.

"No, it's not." Edward cut in. "You were just using that as a cover the whole time you brutally tortured Bella."

"But---'' Aro started.

"But nothing. You are evil, malicious, vile, selfish, and cruel. You never think about how your actions affect other people. You deserve to die more than anyone in this room, and that's a pretty big feat with Jane, Alec, and Caius standing behind you. I will let you watch as I kill the rest of these people, and then I will kill you. Deal?" I snarled at him.

I stretched my shield out and grabbed Jane and Alec in it. They both screamed as they were picked off of the ground and pretty much shoved into a small tube. I pushed the sides closer together quickly, and Jane and Alec were smashed into a million pieces. I then switched my shield to the other guard members, but stopped myself. I remembered that Chelsea made people feel loyal, so maybe if I killed her, I wouldn't have to kill come of the guards. I put the shield around Chelsea and Renata, and when they were gone, I looked up at the members of the guard. It looked like someone had slapped them in the face.

Questions like, "What am I doing here? And, "Why am I fighting again?" filled the room.

"Please, can I speak to you for a moment?" I asked them. They all got quiet and looked at me.

"Chelsea, a member of the guard, had the power to make people feel loyal and obligated to be here. Now that she is dead, do you feel that pull?" I was answered with a lot of shaking heads and some shrugging.

"Those who wish to leave, may, and those who wish stay and be guard members still, just not under oppressive lunatics like him," I said, pointing at Aro, "May stay. The people that still feel that I am doing something wrong can fight me if they want, but that will only result in death."

The majority ran out the door when I put the shield down around them, but about five remained. They said they still wanted to protect the law. I said that was fine.

Next I turned to Caius and the wives. I quickly killed them and watched Aro's face as he knew he was alone, the only other person was Marcus. I put a shield around Marcus and pushed him to the other side of the room. I turned back to Aro.

"You have caused so much pain to my family and friends. I really should have prolonged the deaths of a lot of those people, but I didn't. That is because we are not like you. We do not kill people for fun, or hunt whole families down because they have more power than us and make us feel threatened. I should make your death excruciating. I should make you wish for death, but before I decide whether to do that or not, I want you to do something." I paused, glaring meaningfully at Aro.

"Tell Marcus what you did."

"What?" Aro said, surprised.

"Tell him." I repeated.

"Tell me what, Aro?" Marcus asked emptily from across the room.

"Nothing." Aro said hastily, understanding now what I wanted.

"Tell him now." I said, stepping forward. Aro looked fearfully at me, and then took a deep breath.

"I killed Didyme." Aro said this quickly and quietly.

"What?" Marcus gasped, horrified.

"Say it again, Aro." I said.

"I killed Didyme."

"There. Now you know Marcus. I thought you should hear it from him before I killed him. Now you did so…. Bye Aro. Have a nice time in hell." I said simply, and then I wrapped my shield around him, squeezing slowly. He let out a scream toward the end, and even though I hated him, I had a conscience, so I quickly smashed him, and watched the pieces fall to the ground.

I stood, looking at them for a moment, not quite believing that it was over.

After about thirty seconds, I turned around. Marcus was looking at the pieces of his brother with hate in his eyes. Then he looked up at me.

"Why have you kept me alive?"

"Because I don't believe that you are evil like your brothers. You never did, or said anything to make me think you are malevolent." I turned to Edward. "Am I right?" I asked.

"Yes." He said, staring at me strangely. I turned back to Marcus.

"Will you be the new and improved Volturi? You can gather guards the right way, not forcing them to join. You will do a good job. You know all the rules, and I know you are good at it." I paused, looking for his answer on his face. It wasn't surprising that there wasn't one. "Please?" I added. To my surprise and delight, he stopped for a few moments, and then said,

"Yes, I will continue on here. I will try to find good men to help me protect the law. I however, do not have the power that was here yesterday. Would you mind coming to help if it was ever required?"

"Of course I don't mind. I would be happy to. Thank you so much."

As I said this, I relaxed, realizing I was done fighting. I also felt a weight come over me. I felt oddly tired. It wasn't like I wanted to sleep, but I felt like I had been holding the sky up for the last five days.

I couldn't stand anymore. I fell to the ground with thump, and a soothing blackness washed over my brain.

The last thing I heard was Edward calling my name.


	7. Wishing For Death

**Well here is Chapter 7! This is basically chapter six but through Edward's perspective. **

**I wanted to convey both Edward and Bella's perspective.**

**Please review! I hope you like it!!!!**

**7.) Wishing For Death**

Bella came through the doors, struggling. The moment I saw her I felt like the sky had been lifted off my shoulders. That feeling was brief, but appreciated. I knew what Aro was planning now.

He was planning on torturing my Bella. He wanted nothing more than to kill her and all my family. He just needed an excuse for it. He was concerned about his control over everyone. He thought that if he got rid of all of us, he would never have to worry about losing his precious control again; with Bella alive that was impossible. I watched in horror as my wife was led to her death like a pig for slaughter. I struggled to get away from my restrainers, but there were five of them against me, and I couldn't free my arms. Suddenly I heard her thoughts.

_Edward. I love you. I love you. I love you. I missed you more than you can imagine. Oh Edward, I'm sorry this all happened, I should have fought harder or done something that would have prevented all of this. I love you._

I couldn't bear to hear the apologies in her head. _I _was the one that needed to apologize. This was entirely my fault. I wanted to tell her so many things, but realized what was most important.

"Bella I love you, I love you." I shouted across the room to her, but as I finished I heard Jane's evil thoughts.

_She must die. I wish I could just give her a taste of pain…_

"NOO!" I shouted, but it was too late. I saw and heard Bella gasp and fall to her knees, feeling Jane's power for the first time. I couldn't think through the pain of seeing Bella hurting like that. I was immobilized. She stood up again three seconds later, glaring at Jane. Then she answered Aro's question that I didn't hear.

"How do you think I am Aro? You cut my arms off and threw me into a cell. Does that sound like a happy picnic to you?"

Hearing her voice shot a jolt of relief through me. I lived off of that voice, that face, those lips. I needed to hold her. I struggled more than ever to break free and run to her, but my efforts were futile. I barely listened to the conversation happening in front of me, I just stared at my Bella and struggled. Then I heard Aro's thoughts.

_Let us see how she reacts to this….. _Aro looked at Felix.

"Felix will you make Bella see reason?"

He wanted to threaten Esme, which Bella would never allow, and then he they would hurt her. I struggled even more, but it wasn't enough. I was a failure. Then Felix punched Bella. I was livid. I would have shred Felix to pieces if I could have.

"What are you doing Felix?" Bella asked.

"Getting you to see reason. Open your shield."

"What? Why would I do that? Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Yes, I do, and _this_ is why you would do that." Felix snapped his fingers and the man restraining Esme came forward.

"Bella, open your shield or I will kill _her." _Felix grinned, and then traced his finger along Esme's throat.

"Bella darling, don't do it. Don't do it. Don't listen to them." Esme cried, hoping desperately that Bella would listen, but I knew what Bella would do.

"Do you want her to die, Bella?" Felix asked again.

"Let her go Felix, it's already done." Bella said resignedly. Jane smiled at Bella, and Bella fell to the floor, squirming. She didn't scream, and soon she lay completely still, but I could hear her thoughts. She was in agony. She was using all of her control to say still and quiet. The pain of seeing and listening to her like that was worse than any pain I had ever felt. I was dying in a slow, tortured way. I couldn't make myself breathe. I heard her think to me that the reason she was good at staying still through pain was because when she changed, the morphine held her down. It was another gash to the already dying heart inside of me.

Jane was not happy that Bella seemed immune to her powers. She complained to Aro, who knew the way to test if Bella had put her shield down or not. He walked over to me. I didn't want him to hear Bella's pain. I hated giving him the joy of seeing the agony he was inflicting on Bella and me. I tried for a moment to elude his touch, but it was useless, and he put his hand on mine.

I read his shocked mind as he felt a glimpse of the pain Bella had been in, the anguish I was in, and he looked sharply at Bella.

"That is impossible. How did you not move or make any noise? You even had coherent thoughts as it was happening. There is no doubt that you felt all of it." He looked at Bella for a few more moments, amazed and frustrated, and then looked back at me, briefly thinking that I had tricked him somehow. He shook his head deciding against that.

He looked at Felix and nodded, and I read what he was thinking. He wanted Felix to stab Bella. My heart exploded, pain filling me like I had never felt anything before, and then I ceased to feel anything. I watched as Felix took out a slightly sharpened vampire bone, and stab Bella in the side with it. She didn't even see it coming, and gasped in pain. She shouted at Felix, but I didn't hear her words. I just listened to her thoughts. She was very angry. She wasn't thinking about the pain, only that she would never see her daughter again, and that she loved me. I wished for death.

Felix pulled the bone out of Bella and then stabbed it into her back again. I felt as if acid had filled by brain. I could hardly see anything but Bella, who thinking of kept me from losing myself to the blackness completely. Bella looked at me for a moment, wondering about the poor soul that had been ripped apart to serve as torture tools for Felix. Only Bella would think about that whilst being tortured.

When Bella looked away, Felix stabbed her again, and Jane tortured her at the same time. Bella screamed and fell to the floor. She writhed in agony for a longer amount of time, and when she finally managed to still herself, Felix pulled her up by the hair and stabbed her again.

I was a failure as a man and a husband. I couldn't even protect my wife. I deserved to die a billion tortured deaths. I wished they would be so kind as to grant that wish. None of those deaths could ever hold a candle to what I was feeling now.

Aro told Bella to stand up. She didn't think she could do it. She was in too much pain. She stood up slowly, and then was standing, shaking in front of Aro. He then told her to speak to him, but she was using all her strength just to stand. Aro wasn't even trying to hide his evil now.

I watched as Bella struggled to be able to speak, but when she opened her mouth, she screamed. Her screams were like a knife to my brain. She sank to her knees, giving up, and whispered,

"Rot----- In-----Hell------ You-----Evil----Despotic----Fiend'' After she had spoken those words, she stood up, staring angrily at Aro. Aro merely smiled happily.

"Stand _and_ speak, Bella."

The anger in Bella's thoughts peaked, giving her strength.

"NOO! I HATE YOU!" she shouted, and then Felix stabbed her again. Bella whirled around at an amazing speed and flung herself at Felix. She tore his head off with her teeth, quickly pulled the bones out of her body, and threw them out the window, causing all of the glass to fall to the ground, shattering loudly. The pure sunlight poured into the room, illuminated all of the vampires, and the room was filled with sparkles.

"He will not be happy. This is the second time…." Aro mused.

"He deserved it." Bella spit at him. She did all of this even through the torture of Jane's abilities. She was incredible.

"Join us Bella. No one wants this to continue." I wasn't the only one who could hear that Aro's words were lies.

"Yeah, except---- for you!" Bella gasped, thinking that she was getting better at speaking through the pain.

Aro was circling Bella like prey. "Bella, Bella, what will we have to do to make you see sense?"

"What sense? There is no sense in this! You will never make me give in to you!"

"Hmmm." Aro mused, and I read his thoughts. He was going to use me to get to Bella. It would work.

"NOOOOO!" NO! Bella, don't do anything they say no matter what!" She was looking at me with horrified eyes. I knew without reading her thoughts that my words would have no impact on her. "Even if they hurt me!" I added, but my words were pointless. She was thinking that she wouldn't let anything happen to me.

"Demetri, come over here." Aro instructed. Demetri came over to us and looked at Aro for approval. When Aro nodded, Demetri swung his arm out and stabbed me in the chest. The pain was nothing. I felt almost happy as flames of feeling whipped through my veins. It was incomprehensively better than watching Bella get tortured.

I looked up suddenly when I felt a dense, electric wave blow through me. It felt like a thick, liquid blanket of pure energy, and couldn't imagine the cause of it. I had never felt anything like it before. That was when I saw my Bella. She was glowing. Not from the sunlight, but she had a bright glow over all of her skin. I couldn't hear her thoughts anymore, and quickly searched my memory for when that had changed. I realized that it had happened as soon as I was stabbed.

Bella's eyes were glazed over, her jaw firmly set. Remarkably, she started rising off the ground. I watched in amazement. I felt a concrete wall of electricity hit me and I flew backwards, hitting the ground about ten feet back. I watched Bella's eyebrows furrow as she looked around for the source that pushed us back, and then saw understanding flood her face as she recognized that she did it herself. Bella smiled slightly and turned towards Aro. I felt another wave of liquid energy hit me and watched as the people on other side of the room soared back and smashed into the wall, leaving it in pieces. I couldn't believe my eyes. Bella was absolutely incredible. Apparently she was shocked too, because her eyes became more focused, and she fell back to the ground without a sound, turning to look at the rest of the family and me. Everyone's thoughts were similar. They couldn't believe their eyes. No one had seen anything like Bella before.

The guard members who had been restraining us approached her tentatively. They were all terrified of Bella, and had no idea what to do about her. Bella stretched her hand out towards them, causing them to jerk back in fear.

"I _know _you don't want to do that." She said carefully. Her eyes glassed over again, and she slowly lifted off the ground. The guards moved backwards, trying to get out of the way, but then an invisible barrier encased them, and I watched as the walls of her liquid shield pushed them in further and further until there was nothing left of the guards but bits and pieces. I was busy marveling at the sight, but out of the corner of my peripheral vision, I saw the rest of the guard members hurrying over, hoping to take advantage of her turned back.

"Bella, look out!" I shouted to her. She wheeled around and saw the advancing line of guards. I saw the hoard hit a barricade, and they all followed Bella with their petrified eyes as Bella walked forward slowly.

"Do you still want me to join you _now_ Aro?" Bella asked sarcastically.

"I---- Bella, we meant you no----'' Aro started, stuttering.

"Harm?" She finished for him. "Yeah that's _exactly _what I was thinking the whole time you were running me and Edward through with vampire bones. You _really _must have not wanted to hurt me."

"Bella, please, give me a chance to speak. I just wanted you to join us. I really wanted it, so I had to resort to certain measures to accomplish that."

"He's lying." Maggie said from a few feet behind me. "He has been the whole time. He may have started off wanting you in his group ten years ago, but he knew that wasn't possible, so if _he_ couldn't have you, no one could."

I watched Aro fidget and squirm, loving every second of it. Eighty-five percent of my mind still couldn't believe what Bella was doing and what she had done. It was astounding.

Aro was still making excuses. It enraged me.

"What? That's ridiculous!" Aro said in response to Maggie.

"No, it's not." I said. "You were just using that as a cover the whole time you brutally tortured Bella."

"But----'' Aro started.

Bella interrupted sharply. "But nothing. You are evil, malicious, vile, selfish, and cruel. You never think about how your actions affect other people. You deserve to die more than anyone in this room, and that's a pretty big feat with Jane, Alec, and Caius standing behind you in comparison. I will let you watch as I kill the rest of these people, and then I will kill you? Deal?"

I saw an invisible hand grab Jane and Alec, who both kicked and screamed, and watched as they were squeezed into non-existence. I didn't look very pleasant at all, and next Bella picked up Renata and Chelsea. Once they were gone, Bella looked up at the rest of the guard members. I had no idea what she was planning.

"Please can I speak to you for a moment? Chelsea, a member of the guard, had the power to make people feel loyal and obligated to be here. Now that she is dead, do you feel that pull?" Bella looked around at the people who were shaking their heads. "Those who wish to leave, may, and those who wish stay and be guard members still, just not under oppressive lunatics like him," she said, pointing at Aro, "May stay. The people that still feel that I am doing something wrong can fight me if they want, but that will only result in death."

The greater amount of vampires ran out the door, but a few stayed, wanted to stay as guards. Bella accepted that and turned to Caius and the wives. She killed them all swiftly. For some reason she didn't kill Marcus. She picked him up in her shield and he flew across the room, landing in the corner. She then turned to Aro, who looked trapped. He was. My Bella was the strongest and most powerful person in existance, and nothing could stop her.

"You have caused so much pain to my family and friends. I really should have prolonged the deaths of a lot of those people, but I didn't. That is because we are not like you. We do not kill people for fun, or hunt whole families down because they have more power than us and make us feel threatened. I should make your death excruciating. I should make you wish for death, but before I decide whether to do that or not, I want you to do something. Tell Marcus what you did." Bella said.

"What?" Aro said, surprised and confused.

"Tell him." I had no idea what Bella was talking about. I wished I could read her mind again. I tried Aro's head. He had no idea either.

"Tell me what, Aro?" Marcus asked emptily from across the room.

Comprehension dawned on Aro's face and he looked at Marcus fearfully. "Nothing." He answered. Whatever he was so nervous about he was hiding from me.

"Tell him now." Bella repeated.

Aro looked back and forth between Bell and Marcus, and then whispered. "I killed Didyme." I was shocked. I had no idea what had happened to Marcus' wife, and couldn't understand how Bella had found out.

"What?" Marcus gasped, horrified.

"Say it again, Aro." Bella said.

"I killed Didyme."

"There. Now you know Marcus. I thought you should hear it from _him _before I killed him. Now you did so…. Bye Aro. Have a nice time in hell." Aro let out a scream as Bella crushed him in her shield. We all watched as Aro died, never to cause us pain again. Bella stood for a moment looking at the pieces of Aro, and then turned to Marcus. Marcus was in pain thinking about his wife and how his evil brother killed her. I almost felt pity for him. But he didn't do anything while his brothers were making the orders to kill my family, or when Bella was being tortured, so I still was no friend of his.

"Why have you kept me alive?" He asked Bella.

"Because I don't believe that you are completely evil like your brothers. You never did, or said anything to make me think you are malevolent, granted, you never stopped any of your brother's acts of evil, but I still don't think you are all that horrible." Bella turned to me.

"Am I right?"

"Yes." I said. I didn't really agree completely, but she was close enough. I wasn't concentrating that much on what was happening anyway. I could only think about how my mind-boggling wife had saved us all again, and that she was safe. I was on cloud nine. She would be safe. I would never let anything happen to her ever again, and I would be able to kiss and hold her for the rest of my existence. If it weren't for the shield she had around us, I would have run to her and pulled her into my arms forever.

"Will you be the new and improved Volturi? You can gather guards the right way, not forcing them to join. You will do a good job. You know all the rules, and I know you can be good at it." Bella paused, looking at Marcus. "Please?"

Marcus was astonished that Bella would ask that of him, but he figured he didn't really have much else to do on this God forsaken planet, so he might as well do something with his existence.

"Yes, I will continue on here. I will try to find good men to help me protect the law. I however, do not have the power that was here yesterday. Would you mind coming to help if it was ever required?"

"Of course I don't mind. I would be happy to. Thank you so much." Bella said, relieved, and then she started to stagger. I couldn't get through the invisible wall to help her. Every time I tried, I was jolted as if by electricity, and pushed back. Bella started to sag, and I watched as she slumped to the ground, unmoving.

"Bella!" I shouted, and as soon as the words left my mouth, the shield was gone. I ran over to my Bella and gathered her in my arms. She was completely lifeless. I opened the slits of her eyes they stared back at me, unmoving, empty.

"Carlisle!" I said, but he was already there.

"Lay her down Edward, I need to see her." I laid her down on the cold floor and watched as Carlisle bent over her, checking different signs. He couldn't find anything wrong with her.

"Maybe it's the bone wounds." Jasper suggested, leaning close to Carlisle.

"I don't think so. These wounds wouldn't have caused her to react this way." Carlisle was nervous. "I haven't seen a vampire behave this way before."

"We should just try healing her wounds first." Esme said, so we got to work on healing her stab marks.

"Bella, Bella, don't do this. If you can hear me, please, wake up. After all of this, will you make me lose you this way?" I sobbed over her body, scared to death. I couldn't lose her. I couldn't lose her. I just felt so helpless. I looked at Alice, who was sobbing too, and holding Bella's unresponsive hand.

"Alice, do you see her waking up?" I asked anxiously.

"Not yet." She cried miserably.

"She saved us all, she has to wake up." Seth Clearwater howled.

Carlisle worked over her for an hour, trying everything he possibly could think of. Nothing worked. I was regretting the loss of the Volturi, who could have put me out of my misery. I felt dead. I saw her body, cold, unmoving, dead. There were no words to describe the agonizing pain that I felt. I looked up at the remaining guard members who looked on at our pain sorrowfully. I wanted to make them kill me. I was about to go and ask when Alice grabbed my arm.

"Don't, Edward. I don't think she is dead. Her future is hazy, not gone. She will wake up. This might be because she over-used her powers too quickly. She might have gone into shock."

"That's not possible." I said, completely numb. But Alice's words stirred a tiny gleam of hope in my heart.

"We should take her home, Edward." Carlisle said, gently touching my shoulder. I shrugged. I picked up my beloved's body and walked towards the exit in the ground. Alice walked by my side, leading the way out of the Volturi's layer for the last time.

Alice stole a car for Bella, Jasper, herself, and me to ride in. It would look strange to carry a----- I couldn't bring myself to say the word. It would look strange to carry Bella out in public, so Alice picked us up at the exit of the tunnel. The rest of the group would take a bus to the airport. Then we would apparently get a wheelchair for Bella, claim that she is handicapped, and get on the plane. It didn't seem probable that out plan would work, but Alice insisted that it would.

Alice was, of course, right, and we got off the plane at Port Angeles some odd hours later, and drove home. Everyone else ran. When we pulled up to the house, I broke down again. I didn't know if Bella would ever get to see it again, or her daughter. I carried her inside and up to Carlisle's study, where there was already a bet set up.

All I could do was wait. I sat by my existence every second that she was unconscious. The whole time didn't speak. My family members came up to see us very frequently, but stopped trying to talk to me after a while. My heart was dead. My body didn't even feel like mine anymore. Living without Bella was beyond pain. It was beyond anything anyone had ever imagined. I was alone.

"You know, she _will_ wake up. I see it now." Alice stood, leaning against the door frame, breaking me out of my reverie. I looked sharply at her.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. Look for yourself." She showed me her vision of Bella waking up, and I smiled for the first time in what felt like ages.

My heart began to feel hope, relief, and love. I looked down at my beautiful Bella, and leaned down to kiss her perfect lips. I looked at Alice.

"Thank you. So much." I said, and I stood up to give her a hug.

"No need to thank me Edward, I needed to hear this as much as you did. She is my best friend." I knew she was wrong, but shrugged it off.

"So how long will it be?" I asked excitedly.

"About ten minutes." She said, looking at Bella. "I will kill her for doing this to me."

"Actually, no one will mention 'kill' and 'Bella' in the same sentence ever again." I said, correcting her. Even Alice couldn't joke with me right now. The only thing that I needed was to see Bella's eyes open.

It just wasn't normal for a vampire to black out. No one Carlisle had ever encountered had experienced or heard of anything like this. This was, once again, brand new to all of us. Bella never followed the rules.

"Right. Well I will go get everyone else." Alice danced out of the room, and I returned to my chair by Bella's bed. I stroked her face until everyone got up to the room.

Ten minutes passed very slowly.

_Any second now! _I heard Alice say eagerly. I leaned over Bella, looking at her eyes.

Twenty-seven and a fourth seconds later, Bella opened her eyes.


	8. Energy

**So this is the last chapter of Solor Flare. I had a blast writing it and am thankful for being able to share it with you all. Thank you for all the people who read this story.**

**I also want to thank all the people who reviewed. All your reviews make my heart fly, and I loved everyone of them. I hope you liked my story, and I hope you like the ending! **

**I wish all of you awesome people happiness and joy! **

**Bye! **

**8.) Energy**

"Bella?" Edward's anxious voice was right next to my face. I opened my eyes to see what was wrong, immediately tensing up.

"What is it? What is wrong?" I asked, and I looked around. I was home, but I wasn't sure how I got there. I was also surrounded by a ton of people.

"Whoa."

I was seriously having flashes of The Wizard of Oz. I felt just like Dorothy when she woke up from her "dream." It was _really _weird.

Once I realized a split second later that nothing was wrong, my whole head was filled with Edward. Nothing else mattered in that moment, and I jerked myself up and threw myself into Edward's arms. I never wanted to let go again. He was safe.

Edward welcomed me eagerly into his arms and squeezed me with all his strength. He stroked my hair and put his lips to my forehead. "Its okay Bella, everything is okay now." Edward's face, which had just been worried and creased, now relaxed, and he bent his head to kiss me. I kissed him back. My whole body was filled with love and adoration as his lips moved on mine. I poured all the feelings I had had over the last few days into it our kiss. It was one of the most passionate kisses we had ever shared. I hugged him to me even tighter, so happy that we were together again. We finally broke apart when we heard Emmett say,

"Come on guys, really?"

"I wish that I could say that I'm sorry, but I'm not." Edward said, speaking to Emmett, but grinning at me. I grinned back, and sat up. Almost everyone that had gone to Volterra seemed to be in Carlisle's study right now. It wasn't that big of a room.

"So what happened? Is everyone OK?" I asked. All the pressing questions in my head could not wait any longer.

"Yes everyone is OK, and as for what happened, which part?" Edward wanted to know.

"Um, after I…. um…. What exactly _did_I do? Pass out? Is that even possible?" I looked at Carlisle for the answers.

He looked uncomfortable. "I don't really know, Bella, I wish I could tell you. Do you remember what you were feeling before it happened?"

I paused, trying to remember. "I just remember feeling really tired, like I had just held the world up, then I just couldn't stand anymore, and the black took over. I have no idea how it happened."

Edward looked nervously from Carlisle to me.

"It was probably just the after effect of you being so, er powerful, Bella. That also brings up another question. When did you discover that you could block things physically?" Carlisle asked me.

"Well it was actually when they-----'' I glanced at Edward, not wanting to say it out loud. "When they hurt Edward. I just got so mad; I don't really know what happened. It was sort of like when I used my shield in the field."

"Bella, I just wanted to be the first to say, that was _incredible_." Benjamin interrupted. He looked at me like I was Bigfoot, his eyes wide. I looked away from him; it was uncomfortable to be looked at like that. I instead looked at Edward, but he was looking at me the same way. I opened my shield.

_Edward please stop looking at me like that. I'm still Bella. _I looked at him and he smiled.

"Sorry Bella, but I can't stop looking at you like that. You do realize that you are the most powerful person on this planet, right? With a flick of your wrist you could kill a whole country." I shuddered. That was _not _something I liked to think about.

"Yeah, seriously Bella, that was awesome!" Garret said, walking up to give me a high-five. I was thankful they were being nice, but I hated being the center of attention, so I changed the subject.

"Thanks guys. Is Nessie here?" She wasn't in the room, and she hadn't been in Volterra (thank heavens), was it possible she was still in South America?

"No, she's in Vegas."

_Vegas?_

I looked at Edward while he said it, confused. "She came back after you were….. After you left, and then she left again for Vegas before the Volturi came here."

"Oh----- wait, the Volturi came here?" I yelped.

"Yes, but only a few, and no one was hurt, it was very easy." Edward reassured, squeezing my hand.

"Yeah, too easy." Emmett grumbled. I knew that Edward would always sugar-coat it to make me feel better, and Emmett was a pretty bad judge of 'easy', so I looked at Tia, Benjamin's gentle and quiet wife, who thought the way I did when it came to battles.

"Was it okay?" I asked her.

"Yes. It was fine. There were no close calls at all, Zafrina blinded most of them. It was very short." She answered sympathetically. I looked at her thankfully and then turned to Edward.

"Was I really gone only five days?" I still couldn't believe it; the cell time seemed forever.

"Well, really seven, you have been out for two days." He said slowly.

"What? Two days? Has that ever happened to a vampire before?!"

"Not that we know of, no. But then again, you have always been one of a kind."

_Great, thanks. _I thought to him. He smiled and leaned in to kiss my forehead.

"One more question for you, love." Edward said. "How did you know about what happened to Didyme? That caught me completely off guard."

A few other people in the room nodded in agreement.

"Well, I eavesdropped on a conversation between Jane and some other guy. They were in a room relatively close to the cells. It was pretty stupid of them to talk so close to me, actually." I said, remembering. "The guy was asking Jane about why Marcus was so depressed, and she told him. She was snotty with him, too. She acted like she was the freaking queen of Sheba. It was really annoying."

"That's Jane for ya. So can we get out of this tiny room now?" Emmett complained. It _was_ really small for a group of about thirty, so we did move. We all went outside.

"Hey Bella, can you lift me into the air with your shield thing?" Seth asked imploringly when we were on the lawn.

I was about to say yes when Edward interrupted.

"Seth, no, she passed out for two days because of that thing. I don't want that to happen again." He looked at me with begging eyes, saying silently that he couldn't afford to lose me again, even for two days. I could see why. I snuggled into him for a moment, and then opened up my shield.

_Edward, remember when I used my mind shield in the first incident with the Volturi? Well after that I was a little tired too. I think it was just because I over-used my power, and it was the first time. If I practice, it will get easier and easier. Just like letting you read my mind. Before it was hard, now it's like breathing. Please can I try? _I looked deeply into his eyes, hoping he could see why this was okay. He looked at me apprehensively for a moment, and then nodded. I smiled and kissed him on the lips, and then I hopped up.

"Seth, sure. I can lift you up. Just stand still."

"Sweet! But can you just try not to smash me into bits? That didn't look fun." He grinned, joking. I was actually very cautious. I didn't want to hurt him, even a little. I searched inside me for what I had felt two days ago, and found it. It was even harder this time though. I guessed it was because I wasn't raging like a lunatic. I flexed the giant muscle that was my shield, and hefted it outwards. The wind blew around me and the grass flew back.

"That is so cool Bella." Seth said, watching. "It's like a wave of energy." I smiled and kept concentrating.

I pushed the shield out and then flattened it like a pancake. I slowly slid it closer to Seth, not wanting to jerk it into him.

"Brace yourself Seth, its close." Seth looked down as if expecting to see something, and then laughed at himself.

"I'm ready Bella." I moved the invisible wall closer, and touched his legs with it as gently as I possibly could.

He staggered back.

"Sorry! Sorry!" I said, pulling the shield back a little, not knowing what to do.

"It's fine Bella! But this time go a little faster and knock me on to it, either that or I will jump."

"You should jump. I will tell you when okay?" I moved it towards him again, very close to him, and said, "Jump!"

Seth jumped like he was going to do a belly flop, and landed on the shield. It was bizarre. It looked like he was levitating.

"This is SO cool! Gosh, Jake should be here to see this!" Seth shouted excitedly.

"I am." I heard a familiar gravely voice behind me and whirled around, almost forgetting Seth, but I caught myself, and him.

"Jake! I'm so happy to see you! Where's Nessie?" I asked hurriedly.

"Hey Bells, nice to see that you're alive. They told me what happened. Jeeze, that's freaky." He was talking to me, but he was looking at Seth, now standing up, floating about three feet off the ground. "Nessie is coming. She was being swarmed by people…." He added not really paying attention.

"MOM!" I heard Nessie, my beautiful daughter's voice, and dropped Seth.

"Sorry Seth!" I called behind me as Edward and I ran to our precious child. I wrapped my arms tightly around her and Edward wrapped his arms around me.

"Oh, mom! I was so worried! I was scared out of my wits the whole time you were gone! Please don't ever do that to me again!"

"I don't ever plan to! Does _anyone_ ever really plan to? Oh, I missed you so much! I was thinking about you two the whole time I was there, missing you! I love you! I love you!" I dry sobbed into her hair, and then turned to Edward to hug him. I didn't ever want to be away from them again.

"Bella?" I heard a tinkling voice from behind us. Edward stepped back and let me go reluctantly. It was Alice. She looked like a mess. I hadn't talked to her since I had woken up. I was shocked at myself.

"Alice!" I turned and ran to her, hugging her with all my strength. "Alice, I missed you so much!"

Alice laughed. "Ouch Bella, easy! I'm so glad to see you too!" Alice looked happy now, but guilty. "Bella, I'm sorry that I didn't catch you in time. I'm really sorry. I should have seen all of this beforehand."

I looked at Alice for a minute, incredulous. Alice had never been the one to blame herself, and she looked pretty serious. "Alice don't be stupid, no one blames you, or has ever blamed you. You did everything that was in your power to stop this when you knew. How could you have known that this was going to happen? It's only logical that you just would have looked for Aro, Caius, and Marcus making plans. Relax, it wasn't your fault."

Alice looked at me gratefully, and gave me another hug. "I'm just glad you're okay. I was terrified."

"I love you, Alice, I missed you." I squeezed her hand, smiling at her.

"So Bella…can you do the freaky floating thing to _me_this time?" Jacob asked when Alice and I let go of each other. I looked over to see if he would treat me differently now, and was glad to see that he just looked exited and slightly wierded out. I grinned.

"Sure! This time I'll move you around in the air too."

"What? No fair! I want you to do that when I get on!" Seth whined. I smiled.

"How 'bout I just pick you both up?"

"Deal!" they both cried at the same time. I giggled and put my shield out again. When they jumped on this time, I moved the shield upwards into the air, twisting and turning it around, taking it higher and higher into the air. They were whooping and shouting the whole time. I actually gained quite an audience. The people that had stayed in the house before now came out to watch. They either really liked it, or really hated it. I guess I freaked some people out. Oh well. I gave lots of people turns on the shield before Nessie asked,

"Hey mom, can you lift yourself?" It was a good question.

"Yeah, she can! She did it in Volturra!" Seth said happily.

"What? I did?" I asked, shocked. I didn't recall ever lifting off the ground, and it just seemed like a thing you would notice.

"Yeah, you don't remember?" Seth asked, tilting his head to the side.

I shook my head.

"Well, you did. You were higher then me and Jake, too. Like twelve feet up maybe."

"Huh." I said.

_Well, might as well give it a try. _

I brought my shield back in towards myself, really doubting that I could carry myself. I had the shield on constantly, and it didn't block me at all, so I couldn't see how it would now. I moved the shield right up to my feet, and tried to step up to it. My foot went right through, making no sound on the ground. I looked up at Nessie and Seth, shrugging.

I decided to try harder. Maybe I wasn't doing it the right way. Maybe I shouldn't step up to the sheild. I put all my energy into making the shield more solid so it would hold me. I focused all of my attention on it, imagining that it would lift me off the ground. I felt my eyes go fuzzy, and I watched as Seth and Nessie got smaller and smaller below me. It freaked me out. Shocked, I lost the haze on my eyes, and I fell to the ground.

"Woah." I whispered. I wanted to do it again.

I focused again on the shield, and I felt myself rise into the air again. It took a lot of effort, but I moved myself around, side to side, up and down, back and forth. I felt myself losing altitude, and I felt myself getting weaker, so I let the shield go, and I fell to the ground silently. I was pretty tired. Edward could tell.

"Bella?" He asked worriedly, walking up to help support me. He walked me over and set me in a chair.

"I'm fine Edward. I just need a break for a while, that's all."

"Bella, no more exerting yourself. I don't want you to pass out like that again. It's not normal."

"Okay Edward."

"That was really cool, though, Mom." Nessie said a dazed look over her eyes as she looked at where I had just been levitating.

"Yeah, Bella, you can pretty much fly! Coolest super power _ever!" _Seth said, grinning.

"Thanks guys." I sighed and relaxed for a minute. The tired feeling wasn't nearly as bad as it had been in Volterra. I was getting better and better every minute. After about five minutes, I felt fine, so I stood up.

"What are you doing?" He asked disapprovingly.

"I feel fine now."

"You should still sit down for a bit…"

"Edward, I'm not an infirm, I just happen to be a vampire."

"Yes, but you are a notoriously unstable vampire." He said, poking my arm.

"Thanks Edward." I said, sardonically. "Do you want to hunt? I hadn't been for about a week before we went to Italy, and now it's been two weeks. I'm pretty thirsty."

"Sounds great." He said, hopping up and taking my hand. I stood up, and he began walking.

"What are you doing?" I asked, frowning.

"I'm _walking_." He looked down at me, slightly worried.

I didn't want to walk, I wanted to _run. _"Have fun with _that_!" I shouted behind me, taking off.

"Hey! You got a head start!" He called, only about ten feet behind me now.

"A desperately needed one!" I laughed and ran with all my might.

He caught up to me in about five minutes, and tackled me. We collapsed, laughing in the woods, somewhere around Seattle.

"Finally, some time alone!" He said, scooping me up in his arms.

"Yeah, I was beginning to think we would be stuck with our loving family forever!" I laughed.

"And then I would never get to do this-----!'' He leaned down and kissed me full on the lips. My arms went around his neck and he pushed me back onto the forest floor. The kiss started out light and playful, but turned very passionate and loving. His scent was surrounded me, making me feel like I was in heaven. I pretty much was. All that mattered in that moment was that I had Edward. I wouldn't lose him. We kissed for a full five minutes without stopping. Not having to breathe had its advantages. But finally I broke the kiss and looked up into his beautiful eyes.

"I love you Edward Cullen. I love you so much." He looked deeply into my eyes too.

"You have no idea how much I missed you Bella. My love for you is in every fiber and pore of my being. I love you."

I kissed him tenderly for a moment, and then I pulled him to his feet.

"What do you say we go get some mountain lion, huh?"

"That sounds perfect, my love." Edward said, and it was. We would be together forever now. I would make sure of it. Nothing else could hurt us.

Our existence that we had worked so hard for was now unshakably secure, Edward, Nessie, and I constantly under my shield, protected from harm.

And that was how it stayed. Forever.


End file.
